


Toy Soldiers

by EbbaTriesToWrite



Category: GOT7
Genre: Alternate Universe - Assassins & Hitmen, Alternate Universe - Spies & Secret Agents, Enemies to Friends, Implied/Referenced Torture, Kim Yugyeom-centric, Smut, they're not really enemies tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-10
Updated: 2019-07-23
Packaged: 2019-11-15 04:30:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 23,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18066626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EbbaTriesToWrite/pseuds/EbbaTriesToWrite
Summary: They had been fine without a hacker for nearly five years now. Mark and Jinyoung’s skills had been enough and when they hadn’t been their organization would provide one for them. They didn’t need a hacker on their team. They did well enough on their own and he knew the rest of the team thought so too. But Jaebum didn’t have a say in this. They got a lot of freedom within their organization with how skilled they were but there were still limitations to what they could do.orJB and his team get a new addition to their team; Kim Yugyeom.





	1. Chapter 1

Jaebum and his team were one of the best teams in Korea. They worked as a well oiled machine - efficient in everything they did, from assassinations to infiltration jobs, you name it and they could do it. So when their boss, Mr. Park, had called the leader to his office the minute they landed back in Seoul after a job in Tokyo, he had been surprised. They were usually given some time before the debrief and even then it was rarely the head of the organization taking the information. 

Jaebum shook his head as he sat in his car in the parking garage of their building. He should have known it wouldn’t be about the mission. But really no one could blame him for thinking it would be. They had messed up, nearly blowing their cover. The only thing that saved them from that outcome had been Youngjae’s well placed bomb blowing up any evidence of them ever having been there. 

So when Mr. Park simply brushed off Jaebum’s attempt at explaining their mistakes he had been stunned. The older man had pulled out a file and handed it to Jaebum as he explained what their meeting was about; a new recruit. Jaebum grabbed the file from where he had thrown it on the passenger seat and opened it, staring at the picture as if it would help his clear up his confusion. They were assigned a hacker to join their team. The man was the same age as Bambam but his age still threw Jaebum off. He had known Bambam for ages, he had seen the younger prove himself again and again but all Jaebum knew about the new recruit was his name and his age. How was he meant to bring this kid into their team? 

They had been fine without a hacker for nearly five years now. Mark and Jinyoung’s skills had been enough and when they hadn’t been their organization would provide one for them. They didn’t need a hacker on their team. They did well enough on their own and he knew the rest of the team thought so too. But Jaebum didn’t have a say in this. They got a lot of freedom within their organization with how skilled they were but there were still limitations to what they could do. 

Jaebum closed the file and got out of the car. He had stalled for long enough and the recruit was joining them in the morning. He needed to catch the others before they retreated to their rooms for the night. It wouldn’t be pretty if the hacker arrived without the others knowing beforehand. He remembered the time they were supposed to work with another team and they showed up too early, resulting in quite a few pieces of furniture needing to be replaced since Mark and Jinyoung had thought their allies were enemies and promptly attacked them. Their apartment was their only safe space and having it invaded without forewarning was not a pretty sight. 

The others were gathered in the living room when Jaebum got in and he couldn’t keep the fond smile off his face. Youngjae was curled up next to Bambam and Jinyoung had Mark’s head resting on his shoulder and Jackson was resting with his head in Mark’s lap. His face was slightly bruised from an altercation during the mission but otherwise he looked fine, much better than his opponent. Jaebum made his way over and settled on the armchair and sighed heavily, he hoped the team was too tired to protest too much about what he was about to tell them. 

“How did debrief go?” Jinyoung asked and straightened up a bit from his slouched position. 

“It wasn’t a debrief.” Jaebum said simply and the rest perked up at that, confused, so he continued, “We’re getting a new addition to the team.”

“What?” Mark asked and Jackson sat up to look straight Jaebum. “Why?” 

“Mr. Park thinks we need a hacker so he assigned one to us.” Jaebum slid the file across the coffee table and Bambam quickly snatched it and he and Youngjae looked through the information quickly before handing it to Jinyoung.

“We haven’t needed a hacker before.” Youngjae said once the others had read through the thin file, “Why does he think we need one now?”

“We’re getting more and more complicated jobs and with the way technology is advancing he thinks we need an expert.” Jaebum sighed and ran a hand through his hair. 

“Why not just borrow one from the organization when we need one?” Bambam asked, “We still get simple jobs sometimes and wouldn’t it just be a waste this guys time to have him cooped up behind a screen when he can’t help?”

“Maybe, but Mr. Park has made the decision so we need to follow it. Nothing will really change.” Jaebum echoed Mr. Park’s words from before, “We’ll just have another voice in our earpieces and an extra set of eyes watching our backs.”

“Through cameras.” Jackson scoffed and Jaebum sighed. He knew Jackson wasn’t the biggest fan of people hiding behind screens while the rest of them were putting their lives on the line, Jackson more than any of them with his expertise in close combat and infiltration. 

“Look, I know this isn’t ideal but there’s really nothing we can do about it except roll with it. Besides, now we won't have to do research, we’ll have our very own computer geek deal with that.” he smirked and was glad to see some of them perk up slightly at that. He really hoped much wouldn’t change with this new addition.

* * *

Youngjae watched as the recruit, Kim Yugyeom, shuffled on the spot as he stood beside Jaebum after the introduction was over. He was much taller than Youngjae had expected but the way he carried himself made him look younger than his age. He seemed unsure and nervous but maybe that was to be expected when you’re introduced to some of the most deadly people in Seoul. The way Jinyoung and Jackson glared at him probably didn’t help either. 

It was getting way too awkward so Youngjae stepped forward, “I’ll show you to your room. Your equipment will arrive later today but you probably want to settle in a bit before that.” he smiled and led the younger down the hall to the room furthest in the apartment. 

Yugyeom only had one duffle bag and a backpack with him, Youngjae noted and frowned slightly. He was supposed to live with them full time but it was like he’d only packed for a few days. Yugyeom pulled out a laptop and placed it on the desk in the corner of the small room before he walked over to the duffle bag and Youngjae was shocked when he saw it was mostly packed with cords and hard drives, he could see some clothes in there but half of it seemed to be filled with tech. 

“That’s all you have with you?” Youngjae couldn’t stop himself from asking and the younger stopped his movements. It was as if he he had forgotten he wasn’t alone.

“I didn’t have much stuff and I figured I’ll buy more clothes when I have the time.” Yugyeom smiled sheepishly, “You do have a washing machine though, right?”

“Yeah, it’s in the bathroom.” Youngjae said, “We have a dryer too but it doesn’t really work. The clothes are still damp when you take them out so you’ll need to hang them up anyways.”

Yugyeom simply nodded and finished arranging his equipment on the desk. They walked back to the living room where the others were gathered apart from Jaebum. The tension from before returned as soon as they stepped foot in the room and Youngjae frowned. He understood why the others were so tense, this was their space and the new addition made it feel wrong. Youngjae had been the latest addition to the team and that was nearly five years ago, in that time they had grown closer than family. They had the image of being deadly and dangerous but when it was just them that image could go away but with Yugyeom joining, well they didn’t feel comfortable losing the facade they had around others. Their closeness was one of their biggest strengths but it was also their worst weakness and they didn’t reveal it to just anyone.

“We got a job.” Jaebum said as he walked back into the room, “We’re to interrupt an arms deal going down tomorrow night at the docks.” 

“Who are involved?” Bambam asked and sat up a bit straighter. 

“The hogs and the scarlets.” Jaebum said before turning to Yugyeom, “You have any equipment to get to work before your stuff arrives?” 

“Yeah.” Yugyeom nodded determinedly, “Should I start immediately?”

“Obviously.” Jinyoung scoffed, “The sooner you get us the information the sooner we can start preparing.” 

Yugyeom nodded again before he scurried off to his room and Youngjae felt a bit bad for the guy. He hoped it wouldn’t take too long before Jinyoung and Jackson’s malice towards the younger would go away, Youngjae wasn’t going to wish for them to be kind but at the very least they could be civil towards the guy. It wasn’t like Yugyeom had any choice in joining them, orders like these came from higher up and even if Youngjae didn’t like to admit it, they were all toy soldiers to be thrown around to do the dirty work for their bosses. Youngjae could at the very least be kind to Yugyeom since he had basically been thrown to the wolves.


	2. Chapter 2

Yugyeom knew it wouldn’t be easy to join a team, and joining such a well established team like Jaebum’s would be nothing short of a nightmare. The guys were mostly civil towards him - apart from a few leers and taunts from Jinyoung and Jackson - but the tension as soon as he entered a room was impossible not to notice. Yugyeom had done research on them as soon as he found out their names from Mr. Park and he understood why they were like this. They were a tight knit group, Jinyoung and Jaebum had worked together for nearly eight years and they had been established as six members for five years. No doubt had they gone through a lot together and Yugyeom knew just how messed up people can get from their line of work so the fact that they didn’t like the change he brought didn’t come as a surprise to him. 

He had hoped that they would warm up to him eventually but he had been working with them for nearly a month now and no matter how hard he worked to prove himself they still didn’t seem to want him there. Jackson had told him after a job that ended with Bambam nearly getting shot that he was a coward because he had stayed back. But Yugyeom wasn’t meant to be in the field, Mr. Park had assured him of that when he got reassigned. He was supposed to watch their backs from the safety of their apartment and he could understand why the others didn’t like it. They were out there risking their lives while Yugyeom was relaying information sitting comfortably in an office chair. 

“Jaebum, there are guards coming from the stairwell.” Yugyeom said into the microphone of his headset as he flicked through the camera angles he had access to, “The room to your right should be unlocked and empty, hide there until they pass.”

Yugyeom watched Jaebum follow his orders and sighed in relief when he went unnoticed by the guards. On the second monitor he saw Jackson and Bambam move through the halls and silently take down the guards posted there with practiced precision. He quickly typed in a few codes into the security system of the building they were infiltrating and silently high fived himself as he managed to shut down the alarms in the main office.

“You have five minutes to get the CEO before alarms are back online.” he said and flicked through the cameras, making sure the exit plan was uncompromised. Youngjae was in a van parked at the back of the building and Jinyoung was on his motorcycle a few blocks down, ready to act as a distraction while the others made their getaway. Mark was settled in an empty apartment across from the building, ready to provide cover fire in case it was needed.

“We got him.” Jackson’s voice rang through the comms, “Jaebum, are the floors below clear.”

“Yeah.” Jaebum confirmed, “Yugyeom, you see anything?”

“No. You’re good to go.” he said and flicked through the cameras to follow the movement of the team.

As soon as Yugyeom was sure the others were safe he set to work on deleting any and all trace of them having been there. He replaced camera footage and erased any electronic evidence of him having been in their system. He had spoken with other hackers and many of them said they found cleanup to be the most boring part of the job but to Yugyeom it was the best part. Cleanup had to be perfect and Yugyeom had always had an eye for detail, he enjoyed the fact that no one would ever be able to tell he had been in their system, poking around and replacing their information. It gave him a bit of a trill and the fact that it protected him was just a bonus. 

It took the others a few hours to get back and Yugyeom assumed they had gone out for food or something after dropping the CEO off with their organization because the drop off shouldn’t have taken so long. He tried not to think about what the organization would do to the man to get the information they needed, his job was done and not letting go of finished jobs was a clear way of getting distracted. In their line of work getting distracted meant making mistakes and mistakes could lead to someone getting killed. 

Jaebum knocked on his door and Yugyeom sat up on his bed, “Good job today.” Yugyeom only smiled and nodded his head in response and the leader quickly left.

Yugyeom was thankful for how profesional Jaebum was, he could clearly tell he was just as displeased by his presence but he had the decency to tell him both when he did bad and good. It was a decency not many people in their business would give, too hardened by past mistakes and assuming praise would lead to overconfidence, a quality that did not lead to good things. Although Yugyeom didn’t want to admit it he craved praise like a man in a desert craved water, he didn’t want to admit how much his past had damaged him. 

Yugyeom shook his head to clear his head and laid back down on the bed and started his breathing exercises, hoping to stave of the anxiety that was brewing inside him before it fully took hold. He couldn’t let it, not here, not now.

* * *

Jackson could feel adrenaline rush through him even as he calmed down his breathing to pass through the halls undetected. It was an easy job, get in, get the information, get out. It was only him and Jinyoung this time. Jobs like these usually worked better the less people involved but Jaebum had made it a rule years ago that no one went alone and none of them had protested against it. He could still remember when Mark went missing for days after a solo job only to come stumbling back home with broken thumbs and cuts and bruises covering his thin frame. He’d been captured and none of them had known because they hadn’t been there and hadn’t known how long the mission was supposed to last for. Jackson felt safer knowing Jinyoung was just a few floors below, ready to act as backup in case it was needed. Better to be safe than sorry. 

He heard footsteps coming from the staircase and heard Yugyeom tell him to hide in a supply closet just to his right. He closed the door just as he heard another door open and held his breath, hoping he’d been quick enough to go unnoticed. He listened carefully for signs that the threat was gone and breathed a sigh of relief when Yugyeom said the guards had moved onto the next floor. He kept himself from thanking the hacker, he still didn’t think the addition to the team was necessary even if he had to admit it did make their work a bit easier. They could have done it on their own. They should be doing it on their own, it was too much of a risk to rely on someone else to keep them safe, especially when that someone was on the other side of the city, unable to help if things really did go wrong. 

He was making his way to the server room at the end of the hall when he heard crackling through his comms before it went back to silence and he shook his head in annoyance, they’d just gotten new earpieces and they were already breaking. Damn technology. 

“Jackson, get to the second floor quickly.” Yugyeom’s calm voice cut through his ears and Jackson froze in his tracks.

“What why?” he whispered, “I’m nearly at the server room.”

“Jinyoung got knocked out, the guards left him for now but he’s not safe.” Jackson felt his blood run cold, Yugyeom seemed to hesitate slightly before he continued, “Get him and get out, the mission is compromised.”

Jackson rushed down the stairs and shot the guard that tried to stop him in his path. He didn’t care about damage control now, not when Jinyoung was in danger. He slammed the metal door open when he got to the second floor and saw Jinyoung’s crumpled form on the ground, blood matted at the back of his head. It was nearly impossible to sneak up on Jinyoung and Jackson made a note to ask him what happened later, no way would a simple guard have been able to do it. 

He picked the slightly taller man up in a fireman’s carry and rushed down the stairs even as he heard footsteps from above. Their car was parked at the back of the building and luckily the exit from the staircase led out there. He ran around the car to the passenger side and fumbled with the keys before he got the door open and quickly placed Jinyoung’s still unconscious form in the seat. He hesitated slightly before rounding the car, glancing quickly at the door they’d exited from.

“Why aren’t they following us?” he mumbled as he put the car in drive.

“I triggered a lockdown as soon as I saw you were out.” Yugyeom’s voice startled Jackson and he hissed out a curse and placed a hand to his chest, he’d forgotten about the kid.

“Good.” he said simply and glanced over at Jinyoung to see him blinking blearily at him and Jackson smiled reassuringly at the confused look he sent him, “You with me?”

“Yeah.” Jinyoung mumbled and gingerly touched the back of his head, flinching slightly, “Hurts.”

“I know, we’ll be home soon and Youngjae will check you over.” Jackson said and patted Jinyoung’s thigh, “You’ll be fine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you think! Comments give me a ton of motivation! xoxo


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for the slow update but hopefully the fact that this chapter is a bit longer makes up for it.
> 
> I also want to say thank you for all the lovely comments on the previous chapters, they really motivate me to continue writing! 
> 
> xoxo

As soon as Jinyoung and Jackson made it inside the apartment they were swarmed by the other members apart from Yugyeom stood in the corner of the room, close to the entryway, as if ready to escape. Youngjae did a quick examination of Jinyoung and ended up diagnosing him with a minor concussion and left to make them some tea after having him settled down on the couch, wrapped in too many blankets. Jackson settled down next to Jinyoung and Bambam curled up against his other side and Jinyoung wrapped a comforting arm around the smaller man. Even though the younger member was known to be sassy and loud they knew how much he actually cared and he had no doubt been concerned when he heard they needed to retreat from a mission.

“What exactly happened?” Jaebum asked from where he was still stood in front of them.

“I don’t know.” Jinyoung said and tensed up slightly next to Jackson, “The lights cut out for a second and next thing I know I’m in the car.”

Jaebum looked expectantly at Jackson and he simply shrugged, “I just heard from Yugyeom that Jinyoung had been knocked out and that we needed to get out of there.”

“Yugyeom.” Jaebum turned to look at him and the youngest seemed to shrink in on himself despite his ridged form, “Did you see what happened?”

“No. I got locked out of the system for just a minute and when I got the cameras back Jinyoung was knocked out and I let Jackson know what had happened and made the call that they should retreat.”

“How did you even get locked out?” Mark asked, frowning at the hacker.

“I don’t know.” Yugyeom said and shuffled on the spot, “I was looking into it while the guys were getting back but I figured you’d want to debrief as soon as possible.”

Jaebum didn’t seem pleased by the answer but sat down once Youngjae got back with a tray of tea and silently sipped from his cup. Jackson helped Jinyoung untangle from his nest of blankets and handed him a cup. Jackson couldn’t help but feel disappointed by the failed mission but he was glad that they made it out okay, that was more than they could ask for in their line of work.

“Don’t just stand there like a statue.” Bambam laughed and to Jackson’s surprise Yugyeom was still standing by the wall, looking like a deer caught in headlights by being called out, “Come sit down with us.”

Yugyeom shuffled over and seemed to hesitate slightly before he sat down next to Mark who scooted over on the second couch to give him some room. They sat there in comfortable silence for a while before Bambam and Mark retreated to their rooms and Youngjae went to do the dishes in the kitchen. 

“Was there any possibility that Jackson could have been able to get the information after getting Jinyoung out?” Jaebum asked suddenly and Yugyeom froze, “Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad you got them out safe but this mission was still a failure.”

“There were guards after us.” Jackson said when he noticed Yugyeom having trouble forming words. He didn’t even know why he felt the need to defend the younger but Jaebum’s accusatory tone did not sit well with him, “We couldn’t risk getting caught and the only reason we didn’t was because Yugyeom managed to lock the guards inside so they couldn’t follow us.”

Jaebum only sighed and nodded before he got up and headed for the door, presumably to brief their higher ups of the mission. 

“You made the right call.” Jinyoung said after the door closed behind the leader and Yugyeom seemed to relax slightly, “Thank you for prioritizing our lives over the mission, I know that goes against what the organization wants but it was the right decision.”

“Of course. Lives are more important than the mission.” Jackson couldn’t help but take note of how it sounded almost like Yugyeom was reading from a script, like he didn’t actually think that, but he didn’t mention it. Yugyeom was already standing and quietly excused himself and Jackson and Jinyoung shared a confused glance before they also got up and got ready for bed.

* * *

Jaebum really didn’t get why he had to be chosen as leader, he was the one with the shortest temper yet he ended up with the job of dealing with cruel men who only cared about the success of their missions. He hadn’t meant to be so rude to Yugyeom when asking for the information but he needed it if he was going to be able to defend his teams choices.  
He rinsed out his hair and got out of the shower. At least they didn’t have any other missions for the rest of the week so he wouldn’t have to deal with the men he’d had to deal with that night for another few days. He wrapped a towel around his hips and made his way down the dark hall and took note of the light streaming from the sliver under Yugyeom’s door but ignored it in favor of joining Jinyoung in their room. He was glad the younger was okay and he was thankful for Yugyeom making the call to get him and Jackson out safely.

When he entered the room he was surprised to see Jinyoung still awake. He was sitting up against the headboard with a book in his lap and glasses low on his nose, he looked beautiful. Jinyoung glanced up at him with soft smile that shifted into a small smirk as he glanced down at his bare chest. 

“Don’t look at me like that.” Jaebum scoffed and headed over to the dresser to grab himself a set of clothes to sleep in.

“Like what?” Jinyoung asked innocently but when Jaebum glanced over his shoulder at him he looked anything but as he put down the book and took off his glasses.

“Like I’m a piece of meat to be devoured or something.”

”Well how can you expect me to look at you any other way when you come in here still glistening from your shower and looking so hot?” Jinyoung got out of the bed a strode over to him with a smirk and Jaebum couldn’t help but mirror his expression.

Jinyoung silently grabbed the clothes hanging from Jaebum’s limp grip and threw them on the ground and promptly silenced any protest Jaebum tried to muster by pulling him in for a kiss. Automatically Jaebum’s hands found their way to the younger man’s waist and his eyes closed in contentment of having him so close, of having him safe. He was pulled out of his pleased state though, when Jinyoung tugged at the towel wrapped around his hips, making it fall unceremoniously to the floor.

“Hey!” he exclaimed and pulled away but Jinyoung only smirked and pulled him over to the bed and pushed him down on it. He attempted to get up but stopped halfway up when Jinyoung pulled off his soft sweater and discarded his sweatpants and simply enjoyed the view before the younger climbed on the bed with him, straddling him and leaning down to kiss him again.

They made out for a while and Jaebum could feel the burn of arousal and could tell Jinyoung did too because he felt him hardening through his boxers as he grinded down on him. The room seemed to grow hotter with each passing minute and Jaebum got tired of their position and flipped them over so that he was on top. Jinyoung gasped at the sudden change and the flush of his face deepened but Jaebum noticed the slight flinch of pain he had showed when his head connected with the soft mattress and he froze in his movements.

“Maybe we shouldn’t do this.” Jaebum said.

“What?” Jinyoung frowned at him, “Why not?”

“You’re injured.” Jaebum flopped over so he was laying next to him and tried to ignore his throbbing erection.

“Oh come on!” Jinyoung sighed and turned his head so he could look at him, “I feel fine, it was only a minor concussion.”

“Still,” Jaebum said and closed his eyes so he wouldn’t have to look at those pleading eyes, “we should just res-” his eyes flew open when he felt a hand wrap around his cock and couldn’t stop himself from moaning as Jinyoung started jerking him off.

“Please.” Jinyoung whispered and his face was closer now and Jaebum could feel his warm breath on his face. 

Jaebum grabbed hold of Jinyoung’s hand to stop his movements and sighed deeply, the younger man had way too much power over him. “Fine,” he said and moved to straddle his hips, “but just let me take care of you, okay?”

“Okay.” Jinyoung sighed and Jaebum leaned down to kiss him while tugging at his boxers.

He took his time preparing Jinyoung, partly because even if he had said he was fine, he’d still been knocked unconscious just hours ago and partly because it had been so long since they’d had time to do this. He supposed that was the reason Jinyoung had been so insistent on this. They lived together and spent most of their time together but it seemed like there had always been something in the way each time they even came close to having sex.

Jaebum lined himself up and stared at Jinyoung through half lidded eyes, Jinyoung was panting and his chest was flushed red as his hands gripped the bedsheets in anticipation. He slowly pushed inside and they moaned in unison once he was finally fully inside and Jaebum pressed kisses on Jinyoung’s face as he breathed heavily while he adjusted to his size.

“Move.” Jinyoung said and wrapped his arms around Jaebum’s shoulders and pulled him down to speak against his mouth, “Please.”

And who was Jaebum to say no to him? 

He thrusted into him and they groaned loudly into each other’s mouths. Somewhere in the back of his mind Jaebum was aware that if one of the others were to pass by their room they’d be able to hear everything but he ignored it and focused on the sensation of having Jinyoung like this.

“I’m so glad you’re okay.” he panted and he could feel himself getting closer, “I’m so glad you’re here, safe.”

“I’m always safe with you.” Jinyoung said and his voice stuttered, signalling that he was close too. 

Jaebum reached down between them to jerk Jinyoung off in time with his thrusts. Jinyoung’s nails raked down his back but the pain felt so good in combination with the pleasure and Jaebum came as he thrusted deep into Jinyoung and he nearly screamed at the feeling and collapsed down onto Jinyoung and laid there panting for a minute before he realised Jinyoung hadn’t come yet. 

He pulled out and quickly discarded the condom and worked his way down Jinyoung’s chest to wrap his mouth around his length. Jinyoung fisted one hand in his hair as he threw the other over his face as Jaebum started bobbing his head. He took great credit as he made Jinyoung come in just a minute and he crawled his way up the bed to wrap his arms around the younger as they both came down. 

“I love you.” Jaebum said with a raspy voice and pressed a soft kiss to Jinyoung’s temple.

“I love you too.” Jinyoung said and his eyes were already closing as exhaustion took hold. 

Jaebum carefully got up to grab the covers that had fallen off the bed as not to wake the younger before he settled down next to him again and pulled the covers high and smiled softly as Jinyoung naturally curled up to him. He placed another kiss to his temple before he let his eyes fall closed and let sleep take him.

* * *

Bambam had realised weeks ago that Yugyeom was staying, that he was going to be permanent addition to their team but despite that he hadn’t really made any effort to get closer to him. It was Youngjae that changed that, like he usually did. The man looked innocent and was kind of shy but he was an expert in manipulation and had no stipulations about using those skills on his friends. 

So it had been a few well placed comments from Youngjae that led them to the situation they were in now. A shopping trip to the mall. And honestly, that wouldn’t have been so bad if it hadn’t been for the fact that Youngjae had somehow convinced Bambam to buy Yugyeom anything he wanted. It had so far only been a few shirts and a couple pairs of underwear but Youngjae was pulling them from store to store and forcing Yugyeom to try on outfit after outfit and Bambam was sure he’d be broke by the time they got back home.

They took a lunch break and Youngjae insisted he pay for it, much to Bambam’s delight and Yugyeom’s dismay. The oldest of the trio had excused himself to go to the bathroom and that left Bambam and Yugyeom in an awkward silence since they had never spent any time alone together. 

“I’ll pay you back.” Yugyeom said after a while and Bambam looked up from his phone, surprised.

“You don’t have to.” Bambam said and smirked slightly at the taken aback expression on the younger’s face, “Besides, Youngjae will probably kill me if I let you do that.”  
“He doesn’t have to know,” Yugyeom smiled softly, “we just won’t tell him.”

“He’ll find out.” Bambam said seriously and the smile slipped off Yugyeom’s face, “He seems like he’s completely clueless but he always finds out when he doesn’t get his way.”

“Why did he even force you to do this?” Yugyeom asked, looking exasperated.

“No idea.” Bambam sighed and scolded his expression when he saw Youngjae coming back.

The rest of the lunch was pleasant and Youngjae led the majority of the conversation which seemed to make Yugyeom more comfortable. The younger even laughed a couple times and Bambam felt ashamed at the fact that he’d never heard Yugyeom laugh since he’d joined them, the way they’d been treating him must have been really rough for him. 

They spent a few more hours at the mall and Yugyeom only picked out a few more shirts before he managed to convince Youngjae he had more than enough and that they could head home. They were nearly at the exits when Yugyeom stopped to look almost longingly at a music store.

“We can go in if you want.” Bambam said and Yugyeom seemed to hesitate slightly before he stepped inside.

They spread out in the store and looked at the albums and posters they had there and when Bambam finally felt done with the store he glanced over to see Youngjae stood a few feet away, flipping through vinyls and Yugyeom was stood by the international section. He made his way over and saw him holding two albums of the same artist with a pondering expression, as if he was making the most important decision in his life.

“You like Chris Brown?” Bambam asked and Yugyeom startled slightly and blushed when he nearly dropped the albums. 

“Yeah, I’m trying to figure out which one I should get.” Yugyeom said and flipped one of them over to look at the songs list.

Bambam simply smiled and grabbed both of them out of his hands, “I’ll get them for you.”

“You don’t have to.” Yugyeom exclaimed and tried to grab the albums but Bambam only rushed over to the counter, “Seriously Bambam!” Yugyeom yelled after him and Bambam glanced back at the taller man with a smirk as he passed them over to the cashier.

When he got done paying, Bambam handed over the bag to Yugyeom and the younger sighed but Bambam could see the small smile on his face. “You really didn’t have to.” Yugyeom said as they walked to the exit, “I can understand the clothes but I don’t actually need those.”

“But you wanted them, didn’t you?” Bambam asked and Yugyeom looked confused at the question before he nodded.

“I could have paid for them.” he grumbled and Bambam laughed and wrapped an arm around the taller’s shoulders.

“I wanted to get them for you.” Bambam smiled and Yugyeom blushed slightly.

“Thank you Bambam.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m really sorry it took me so long to update this but my depression and anxiety has made it really hard for me to write since all I see are the mistakes and issues in my writing. I have gotten some planning done for this story so hopefully it won’t take so long for me to update but I can’t promise anything. 
> 
> Still, I hope you'll like it and please let me know what you think! xoxo

“I lost the cameras.” Yugyeom’s voice cut in through the earpieces and Jaebum shared look with Youngjae before he turned his mic on.

“What do you mean? How’d you lose them?” 

“I don’t know, I’m locked out of the system.” Yugyeom said, sounding slightly distressed, “I’m working on getting back in, hold on.”

“Alright.” Jaebum said under his breath, time to go old school, “Guys, me and Youngjae are on the tenth floor. What are your positions?”

“Me and Jinyoung are on the fourth floor.” Jackson spoke up, “Should we proceed as planned?”

“Yes, for now at least.” 

“I’m still on the rooftop across from you,” Bambam said, “I see nothing out of the ordinary.”

“Mark?” Youngjae asked and Jaebum froze as he waited for a response.

“Mark, come in!” he ordered when they were met by nothing but silence.

The rest of the mission was rushed. With his heart pounding painfully with worry Jaebum ordered Bambam to go check on Mark’s last know position while the rest of them proceeded as planned. Jaebum and Youngjae placed the bugs and Jinyoung and Jackson downloaded some intel from the head executive’s computer. Yugyeom managed to get the cameras back just as they snuck out of the building and gathered in the van where Bambam had let them know he brought Mark. The eldest had been knocked unconscious but was otherwise unharmed and luckily his job had just been lookout for this job so the mission ended up being a success. 

They headed back to the organization’s headquarters, they needed to do a debrief and Youngjae wanted to get Mark checked over at the infirmary since the eldest wasn’t waking up on his own. Head wounds were nothing to take risks on so it was better to be safe than sorry.

* * *

Once Mark woke up, the morning after the mission, they brought him home and gathered in the living room. Youngjae and Bambam had made them lunch and they ate together in comfortable silence. Or, they would be if Jaebum wasn’t glaring at Yugyeom every few minutes, making the younger shrink in on himself more and more each time the stare was directed towards him. 

Jackson wasn’t entirely sure what Jaebum’s anger was about, the mission was successful and Mark was safe but he knew their leader was a perfectionist. He was probably running over the mission in his head to try and figure out how exactly Mark, the one who’s been an operative the longest out of all of them, got ambushed. Jackson would be lying if he said he hadn’t spent the whole night trying to figure out the exact same thing. This was the second time a member of their team got knocked out and then left alive for them to come and rescue them. Things like that just don’t happen, they’d either be killed or kidnapped, the cruel punishment for letting your guard down. 

“What happened yesterday?” Jaebum asked Mark once everyone had finished eating.

“Someone must have managed to sneak up on me,” Mark sighed and rubbed a hand down his face, “I didn’t hear a thing and next thing I know I’m in the infirmary with a splitting headache.”

“Does it still hurt?” Youngjae asked and sat up to look the eldest in the eyes.

“The painkillers are doing their job.” Mark smiled and patted Youngjae’s leg in thanks before turning back to Jaebum, “I let my guard down, it won’t happen again.”

“It can happen to anyone.” Bambam said quietly, reaching over to hold Mark’s hand and Jackson could see the older give a reassuring squeeze and flash a small smile towards the younger.

“It can,” he agreed, “but it shouldn't. A mistake like that could have gotten me killed, I got lucky they left me alive.”

“What happened with the cameras?” Jinyoung asked after a beat of silence, making all of them turn to the Yugyeom who seemed oddly small for his tall stature, sitting there on the floor with a cup clutched in his large hands. 

“I got locked out of the system.” Yugyeom said and Jackson couldn’t help but raise a brow in disbelief, Yugyeom was supposed to be an expert but it’s was the second time it’s happened.

“You’ve said that already.” Jaebum said sternly, “How did you get locked out? Mr Park said you’re one of the best but it’s not the first time it’s happened during a crucial part of a mission. You’re supposed to be watching our back and you couldn’t even do that and now both Jinyoung and Mark have paid the price for it.”

“Jaebum.” Mark sighed, “It was our mistakes, you can’t blame Yugyeom when we have been able to do missions like these without him before.”

“Still.” Jaebum practically growled, “His inability to do his job nearly got you killed. It nearly got Jinyoung killed.”

“We can’t be relying on someone who’s hiding behind a screen miles away from the action!” Mark stood up in anger and Jackson frowned, he’s rarely seen the oldest angry and to have him react like this in Yugyeom’s defense came as a surprise, and glancing at the others he could tell they’re just as shocked. 

“There was someone in the system,” Yugyeom said quietly after a few awkward seconds of silence, “I had to bypass someone actively locking me out, I had no idea they had someone on their side with that knowledge. It wasn’t in the files you gave me.”

“See!” Mark exclaimed, “This one wasn’t on Yugyeom. The higher ups gave us faulty information. How was he supposed to be prepared for something he didn’t even know would be an issue?”

“We’re supposed to be prepared for everything.” Jaebum grumbled and got out of his seat and stormed out the room.

* * *

The days after the argument in the living room were tense. Not that Yugyeom really spent much time out there with the others but the silence in the usually loud apartment was impossible not to notice. He didn’t like that he was the cause of it, he had been ready to take Jaebum’s scolding and even punishment if the leader had seen it fit but he hadn’t expected anyone to jump to his defence. Especially not Mark. It wasn’t that the oldest had been particularly hostile towards him but he hadn’t been particularly kind either so to see him so agitated on his behalf had shocked Yugyeom, he even took the blame himself. 

Yugyeom reached out to grab his cup of coffee but when he brought it to his lips he found it empty and cursed under his breath. He glanced at the time displayed at the corner of his screen and sighed, 04.57 AM. He’s been awake for over 24 hours but Jaebum wanted him to find who exactly got him locked out of the system but the person was good, too good. Yugyeom couldn’t find any trace of someone in the IT department in the company they’d infiltrated with that kind of knowledge and no one had even reported that there had been a breach. The bugs the others had set up were still active and the program Yugyeom had told Jackson to install on the executive’s computer was still running and it showed that there had been no changes made to the intel that they’d downloaded. It didn’t make any sense. 

Yugyeom shook his head a padded out of his room with his empty cup to get himself some more coffee. His eyes were burning from spending all his time staring at the screen and his stomach was aching painfully and he tried to recall when he last ate but couldn’t bring his tired mind to remember. It didn’t matter anyways, he’d spend a few more hours trying to figure out how he got locked out and then he’d crash for a few hours and hopefully find some leftovers from the other’s lunch that he’d steal before getting back to work.

The coffee machine clicked off at the same time as the lights in the kitchen were turned on and Yugyeom spun around in surprise but that seemed to be too much for his malnourished and exhausted body because the room kept spinning even though Yugyeom knew for a fact that he was standing still. He closed his eyes and braced himself against the counter and hoped the nausea would go away. He wasn’t sure how long he stood like that but he felt two hands come to rest his shoulders and he couldn’t help but flinch at the touch. Fortunately the hands went away. 

“Hey, are you alright?” he heard a muffled voice over the sound of blood rushing in his ears and he blinked his eyes open to see Mark stood in front of him, a concerned look on his face.

“Yeah.” Yugyeom nodded and thanked god or whoever was up there that his nausea finally went away, “Just got a bit dizzy.”

“You look like shit.” a second voice said and Yugyeom turned his head to see Jackson leaning against the wall.

“Thanks.” Yugyeom mumbled, and let his eyes travel across the bare chested man “You look hot.”

“Thanks.” Jackson laughed and Yugyeom felt his face heat up in embarrassment, he hadn’t meant to say that out loud. “But seriously dude, are you alright?”

“I just need my coffee and then I can get back to work.” he said and reached for his cup but a hand stopped him and Yugyeom raised his brows in question at Mark. 

“Have you not slept?” Mark asked and for some reason that made Yugyeom chuckle.

“No. I still need to figure out who locked me out of the system.” he said and shook the hand off his arm and grabbed his cup but before he got to bring it to his lips Mark grabbed it and slipped it out of his grasp and placed it on the counter, “What?” Yugyeom asked softly and stared confused at the cup.

“You obviously need to sleep.” Mark said and grabbed Yugyeom’s arm, “Let’s get you to bed.”

“No, I still have work to do.” Yugyeom protested and tried to dislodge the hand gripping him, “Jaebum sai-”

“I don’t care what Jaebum said.” Mark interrupted and dragged him down the hall, “You nearly passed out just a few minutes ago and your health is more important than any work he asks you to do.”

“But I need to figure it out.” Yugyeom grumbled when Mark pulled the covers down on his neatly made bed that had stood untouched for far too long.

“Lay down.” Mark ordered and when Yugyeom let his gaze linger on the soft mattress and the fluffy pillow he couldn’t find it in himself to protest and climbed in, “You need to look after yourself first, Yugyeom. Your health is always priority.”

Yugyeom buried his face in the pillow and pulled the cover over him, already feeling sleep pull him in, “But the job always comes first.” he mumbled sleepily but he was already gone and didn’t hear any response from the older man.


	5. Chapter 5

“There was a hacker.” Jaebum said as he walked into Yugyeom’s room and it took everything in his power not to flinch at the sudden intrusion. 

“What?”

“I asked the Organization to look into who’s been compromising our missions and they found out the Imperium has been working the same cases as us and assigned a hacker to mess us up.” Jaebum said and leaned against Yugyeom’s desk, holding a folder to his chest, “Mr. Park is working on making a deal with the Imperium so this doesn’t turn into a full on war.”

Yugyeom swallowed around the lump in his throat. The Imperium was similar to the Organization but far more ruthless, both in the way they conducted their work and the way they trained their operatives. Yugyeom knew the Organization wasn’t much better, they had the same goals as the Imperium but Yugyeom knew the difference between ferociousness and cruelty firsthand. 

“They think it’s this guy,” Jaebum flipped through the folder and placed it over Yugyeom’s keyboard and pointed to one word printed on the page and Yugyeom couldn’t stop the small gasp he let out, “Proditor.”

“Are you sure?” Yugyeom choked out and grabbed the folder, reading the data collected about the hacker there and the evidence of his interaction with their missions.

“Pretty sure, yeah.” Jaebum said and looked at him with a raised brow, “You know who he is?”

“Yeah.” Yugyeom breathed out and the second brow on Jaebum’s face raised to join the first one and he figured he wanted more than an affirmative, “I’ve heard of his work, he’s good. Really good.”

“You think you’ll be able to keep up with him if he interupts any of our upcoming missions?”

Would he be able to? Yugyeom knew he was good, one of the best the Organization had at the moment but there was no way it was a coincidence that it was Yugyeom’s missions that Proditor was trying to ruin. They had history after all. But Yugyeom now knew he was the one messing with him and as long as Proditor hadn’t changed his style up completely he’d be able to come prepared. 

“Probably.” Yugyeom said and Jaebum nodded before leaving the room and told him dinner was in an hour.

* * *

Jinyoung and Youngjae had spent a few hours making dinner for the team. They had the weekend off and Bambam had demanded they do something fun and went out to get them drinks after ordering them to cook a feast so they could celebrate their relaxation time. Jinyoung had to admit that it had been way too long since they’d last had some time where all of them were free. Even though they were a team they’d still sometimes be sent on solo missions where their specific skills were needed. It was flattering but Jinyoung had missed this, just eating and drinking together.

It had taken Jackson and Mark some time to convince Yugyeom to join them since he claimed he had work to do and that he didn’t want to intrude. Despite Jinyoung’s initial dislike of the guy, he was starting to warm up to him. It wasn’t just his skills that caused the change but also the young man’s personality, he was hardworking and he seemed to care about the safety of the team with how hard he’d been working to figure out where their failed missions had gone wrong. It was admirable but it also made Jinyoung feel guilty for how he’d treated Yugyeom at the start and he figured he should start making it up to him.

“You want another drink?” he asked Yugyeom and the man startled slightly at being addressed but nodded and held up his glass with a small smile.

“Thank you.” Yugyeom said and flinched slightly when Bambam suddenly wrapped an arm around his shoulder.

“You need to keep up.” Bambam slurred, obviously already drunk, “You’ve only had a glass but this night is meant for fun!”

“I’m not quite sure how much I should drink.” Yugyeom chuckled and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly in a way Jinyoung found to be utterly adorable, “Don’t wanna risk it.”

“Don’t tell me you’ve never drank before?” Jackson said, staring wide eyed at the youngest but a small smile seemed to tug at his lips.

“Have never really had the chance.” Yugyeom said and took a sip of his beer.

“Why’s that?” Youngjae said and leaned forward to look questionally at Yugyeom and Jinyoung found himself following suit.

“Uhm-” Yugyeom looked around the room and they all waited expectantly for his answer, “I just never got the opportunity, been working hard since I was fourteen.”

“What have you been doing?” Mark asked from where he was slumped against Jackson’s side, “We know nothing about you but I’m sure you know all there is to know about us, given your skills.”

“Yah!” Bambam exclaimed and pulled away from Yugyeom to stand and point at him accusingly, “That’s so unfair! You better start talking.”

Yugyeom chuckled slightly at the Thai man’s theatrics but shook his head and Jinyoung could understand his aversion to telling them. They weren’t very close despite the fact that they’d been working together with him for a few months now and he frowned slightly when he realised he was part of the reason why.

“Bambam sit down. You can’t just force him to tell you.” Jaebum grumbled before flashing a reassuring smile at Yugyeom and Jinyoung felt himself fall a bit more in love with the man, he truly was a leader. Forgive him for being sappy but he had too much alcohol in his system not to lean over and press a kiss to Jaebum’s cheek. 

“Eww!” Bambam said as he was sitting down and leaned over to Yugyeom to stage whisper, “They’re gross, aren’t they?”

“I think it’s cute.” Yugyeom said softly and Jinyoung nearly squealed when he saw the younger man’s cheeks tint slightly (maybe he had had too much to drink).

The rest of the night was made up of drinking games and they all ended up completely plastered. Jinyoung noticed even through his own drunken haze that Yugyeom was loud when drunk. He laughed loudly, squeaking laughs similar to that of bird noises and he tended to whine when he felt himself be wronged by Jackson’s and Youngjae’s obvious schemes to make him lose most of the games to get him drunk.

Mark had retreated to his room hours ago when the rest of them started getting tired and Jinyoung watched with hooded eyes as Jackson pulled Yugyeom up to get him to bed. The pair stopped suddenly in the doorway and Yugyeom turned to look at them.

“Thank you guys for tonight,” he said with a smile, “it was really fun.”

“Thank you for joining us Yugyeom.” Youngjae said and Jinyoung nodded lazily in agreement, too tired to actually speak up.

“Goodnight Yugyeom, sleep well.” Jaebum said and Yugyeom nodded before being pulled down the hall by Jackson.

* * *

Mark was annoyed. Well, he was always annoyed but today was worse. They were supposed to have had the whole weekend off but on Sunday Mr. Park called a pretty hungover Jaebum to give them a mission. They were to interrupt an arms deal by the docks that was taking place that night.

“Weren’t we supposed to have today off?” Jackson grumbled from where he was resting on Mark’s shoulder, nursing a pretty nasty headache judging from the way he kept rubbing his temples and squinting at the lights.

“Mr. Park claimed that technically we do since the arms deal is taking place at midnight.” Jaebum muttered and ran a frustrated hand across his face, “It’s like he’s forgotten we need to prepare for jobs, the old man used to be one of the best operatives in the country but it seems like the amount of paperwork he does has made his brain deteriorate.”

“Be careful with what you say.” Bambam whispered loudly, looking around the room suspiciously, “He might have bugged our apartment.”

“Besides,” Jinyoung said with a grin, “with the way things are going you’ll probably end up as director in like ten years.”

Jaebum rolled his eyes at their antics before walking over to grab his laptop and flopping down on the couch next to Mark. Mark leaned over to watch as Jaebum pulled up the case file on the computer. It was a deal between two known gangs in the city and them having access to artillery of that caliber was sure to stir up trouble if they weren’t stopped. It was just a bonus that the Organization could confiscate the weapons if they succeeded.

“I’ll go wake Yugyeom up and work out a plan with him.” Jaebum said and slammed the laptop closed, his frustration was obviously still there, “You guys should get ready and we’ll go over the plan at dinner and then we’ll head out.”

* * *

Jaebum had noticed Yugyeom’s worry as soon as they started planning. He had double and triple checked the map and brought up all the things that could go wrong and even though Jaebum was a fan of being detailed in planning he also knew there was no way to plan for everything and he had grown frustrated with the youngest uncertainty. He had seemed pretty confident when he had asked him if he would be able keep up with Proditor if the Imperium decided to intervene again but it seemed like Yugyeom had a bad feeling about it. 

During dinner Mark had seemed to have noticed Yugyeom’s worries and tried to assure him that they’d be safer now that they knew where the threat was coming from but it didn’t seem to help. The youngest had excused himself as soon as they were done planning to start preparing for the job and despite the fact that Jaebum liked how hardworking Yugyeom was he preferred his team to be confident in their own and each other’s abilities. 

He was waiting in the car with Bambam and Mark when the first couple members of the gangs showed up. They watched as they staked out the place and could see the tension between the rival gang members with how their hands never left the holsters on their hips. It worried Jaebum slightly because it probably meant this would end in a fire fight and he knew his team was good but they weren’t invulnerable, like their last few missions had shown. 

They had to wait for another two hours before the trucks showed up along with the people Jaebum recognized as the leaders of the gangs. They just had to wait for Youngjae to confirm that the weapons were there and then they were to go in. Jackson and Jinyoung were ready with smoke grenades and Yugyeom was going to take out the lights so they could go in with night vision goggles and incapacitate the gang members before stealing the trucks and leaving. Their job wasn’t to take down the gangs - there was no point in that -, they were just there to make sure they didn’t get the weapons and that the Organization did instead.

“I’m ready to cut the power at your signal.” Yugyeom spoke through the earpieces.

“They’re opening the crates now,” Youngjae said and Jaebum cursed that he couldn’t see it from his angle, “I can’t see clearly just yet, they’re in the way.”

“You want me to cause a distraction?” Bambam asked and Jaebum looked back to see him practically bouncing in the backseat. 

He was just about to respond when Yugyeom spoke up again, “That’s not the plan, just hold on.”

“Remember who the leader is.” Jaebum wouldn’t call himself a proud man but he didn’t appreciate Yugyeom thinking he could call the shots.

“I’m sorry. I just don’t want you guys to take unnecessary risks.” Yugyeom said and Jaebum wasn’t sure if it was just his own bitterness or if Yugyeom actually sounded patronising as he spoke.

“Don’t worry Yugyeom, nothing will go wrong.” Mark said comfortingly and Jaebum realised the tone of Yugyeom’s voice hadn’t been patronising at all, he was just worried. 

“I see it.” Youngjae said and Jaebum perked up, “It’s the weapons, they’re preparing to make the transaction now.”

“Alright, let’s go!” Jaebum said and they got into action.

The power cut off just as the grenades exploded in large clouds of smoke. Jaebum pulled down his goggles and saw Mark and Bambam do the same. He unholstered his gun and quickly shot a few people in the legs and everything erupted into chaos. The gangs shot wildly even though they couldn’t see and Jaebum saw a couple of them shoot each other. He could see Jackson and Jinyoung head for the trucks and smiled to himself that no one seemed to notice, too distracted by the firefight.

Jaebum was hiding behind a container when the lights suddenly came back on and he had to close his eyes as he was blinded by the light. He was just about to pull off his goggles when the lights cut off again and he quickly looked around for his team and was relieved when he was able to locate all of them.

“What the fuck was that?” Jackson hissed through the comms.

“Proditor got the power back on but I got this now.” Yugyeom said and Jaebum could have sworn his voice shook at the start of his sentence. “Are you guys okay?”

“Fine.” Jaebum said, slightly annoyed by the slight hiccup, “Just do your job so we can do ours.”

Jinyoung and Jackson got the trucks and as soon as they drove away the rest of them headed for the cars to get out of there. The gang members were too busy trying to make sense of the situation to notice them and they got away scot free. 

“See, everything was fine.” Mark said and Jaebum knew who he was directing those reassuring words too and he couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty over how harsh he’d been towards Yugyeom earlier, “Yugyeom, you there?”

They were met by silence and Jaebum shared a confused look with Bambam in the rearview mirror before he glanced over at Mark to see his expression in a mixture of worry and anger, the latter presumably directed towards Jaebum.

“Yugyeom you there? I’m sorry for being so harsh earlier but everything is fine now.” Jaebum said and Mark nodded a bit in satisfaction.

There was still no answer and Jaebum wasn’t sure if he should be angry or worried. Yugyeom had never ignored them like this before and it was disrespectful but maybe not unexpected given Jaebum’s action. He cursed under his breath but kept driving towards the Organization’s headquarters. He’d apologize to Yugyeom later.

* * *

It seemed like Mr. Park felt a bit bad about making the team work on their day off and he let them go after a quick debrief and congratulation of a job well done. Bambam was happy with that, it was always fun to get to see some action but he really just wanted to go home and play some video games like he had planned to do the whole day. He couldn’t help but feel a bit down though since Mark and Jinyoung seemed pissed at Jaebum. He understood them, sure, but he was sure Jaebum was going to clear the whole thing with Yugyeom as soon as they got home and he wanted to crack a few jokes to alleviate the tension but he knew from experience that it wouldn’t work.

They made it home pretty quickly and as soon as they got in the elevator Bambam got a weird feeling in his gut and he could feel anxiety brewing. Last time he had this feeling was when Jaebum was poisoned while undercover at a gala, he could still remember the sickly paleness of his skin as he had recovered in the infirmary and the image made him feel sick. But he couldn’t for the life of him figure out why he was feeling like this now.

The elevator dinged and he couldn’t stop himself from rushing to their apartment door, tapping his foot impatiently as Jinyoung pulled out the keys. As soon as the door opened he let his eyes scan the room to see if anything was out of place. It wasn’t.

“Bambam.” Mark said and Bambam looked over at him, realising how weird he was acting, “What’s going on?”

“Something feels wrong.” he said and the others shared a look, they all knew how good Bambam’s intuition could be even if they joked it off most of the time.

Together they checked each room until they finally reached Yugyeom’s and they all froze when Jaebum opened it. 

It was empty.

His bed was made and the only things left on his desk were the things the Organization had provided.

“He’s gone.” Bambam said but it sounded more like a question.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you think! xoxo


	6. Chapter 6

Jackson and Youngjae joined them shortly after they noticed Yugyeom’s disappearance. Jaebum was out on the balcony calling it in while Jinyoung and Bambam searched for any clues of where Yugyeom had gone. Mark himself was practically frozen in place while Jinyoung distractedly told the newcomers what was going on, he couldn’t understand what was happening. He would have understood if Yugyeom had needed to get away for awhile after the mission, but why take his stuff?

“He never unpacked.” Youngjae said quietly and Mark’s eyes snapped over to the younger man.  


“What?”

“He never unpacked, he lived out of his bag.” Youngjae said just as Jaebum rejoined them, “Like he was never going to stay in the first place.”

“Like he was ready to run.” Jackson added, face clouded with sadness and guilt.

“But we only recently started welcoming him in. Why would he leave now?” Jinyoung asked from his crouched position by the bed.

“Maybe that’s the reason.” Mark hated how true those words rang and the others must hate it just as much because they all looked down, completely dejected.

“Mr. Park is looking into it.” Jaebum said after a while and they all looked at him, “He has no idea why Yugyeom would leave now. It doesn’t make any sense.”

* * *

In the week following Yugyeom’s disappearance the apartment had grown silent. The Organization had assigned a different team to investigate where Yugyeom had gone, with no success. Youngjae wasn’t supposed to know that though, but he had his contacts and there was no way he wasn’t going to keep an eye on the investigation. He was worried, they all were, but the Organization was keeping them busy. Assigning them cold cases to keep them from doing something stupid.

Youngjae could tell they all felt guilty even though they had no clue as to why Yugyeom actually left. They suspected it had been because Jaebum had snapped at him during the mission but they had their doubts, Yugyeom had endured way worse treatment from them when he first joined and like Jinyoung had said several times, they were just now starting to let him in. The dinner they had together the night before the mission had been fun and Youngjae had thought things were finally starting to work out. The tenseness that was usually there had finally disappeared but maybe Youngjae wasn’t as perceptive as he’d thought. He must have missed something, something important. 

A knock on his door snapped Youngjae out of his thoughts and he looked up to see Bambam peek his head in. The younger man looked upset, as he had the whole week since Yugyeom left, his hair was laying flat on his head and there were dark circles under his eyes that spoke volumes of his lack of sleep. Youngjae didn’t doubt that Bambam thought it was his fault even if he wouldn’t say it. He had seen him look at his receipts from their shopping trip at the mall a month ago and he was probably wondering where he went wrong.

“What’s up Bam?” Youngjae asked.

“Jaebum wants us in the living room.” the younger said and nodded his head down the hall, “We got a job.”

Youngjae nodded and followed him out. The others were already gathered in the living room and Youngjae’s heart clenched at the obvious missing piece of their puzzle. Jaebum had a laptop open on his lap while Jackson leaned on his shoulder to peer at the screen with a worried look on his face. The two of them only looked up when Youngjae sat down on Jaebum’s other side, not even noticing the newcomers.

“What’s the job?” Youngjae asked, he hoped this would go over quickly so he could go back to looking into Yugyeom’s disappearance. 

“Namjoon got captured.” Mark said and Youngjae’s gaze flicked over to Jackson, his worried expression made sense now, “Bangtan want our help rescuing him.” 

“When was this? How haven’t we heard about this before?” Youngjae said and tried to keep his own worry out of his voice. They had worked with Bangtan before and even if Youngjae himself wasn’t particularly close with them it still worried him when he heard about other people within the Organization being in danger.

“It happened two days ago,” Jaebum said and pulled up a file on the computer, “Bangtan are very private about matters like these, they thought they could handle it on their own but they’ve figured out who has Namjoon now.”

“Who?” 

“It’s the Unseen.” Jackson practically growled and Youngjae couldn’t help but flinch.

The Unseen were a group of mercenaries, experts in acquiring information by any means necessary. They weren’t much different from the Organization or the Imperium but whereas they worked within the government's rules - obviously altered to fit their assignments - the Unseen didn’t. They took jobs from anyone who offered enough payment and did not care about casualties or morality at all. The Organization had long since been tasked with bringing them down but the Unseen were good at what they did and they kept their backs clean and the rules the government had acted as limitations to what the Organization could do to bring them down.

“Do we have a location?” Youngjae asked after the fact had finally sunk in and Jaebum nodded.

“Yeah, it’s a warehouse outside the city. Bangtan have already scoped out the place and they said it was practically empty but they didn’t want to take any risks so they asked for our help.” Jaebum said and pulled up a map to show them where they were going, “It’s short notice but we’re meeting up with them in two hours.”

* * *

Jackson was angry. Nowhere near as angry as Bangtan but not far behind them. The Unseen were horrible but Jackson had never felt so personally attacked by them before, they usually stayed away from the Organization to keep them off their tracks but now something had changed. Jackson didn’t know what and if he was honest, he didn’t really care. All he wanted was to get Namjoon out of their clutches and hopefully kill some of the Unseen’s men as a threat for them to stay away. 

Yoongi, Hoseok, Mark and Youngjae were spread hundreds of meters away from the warehouse with their sniper rifles, ready to warn them should a threat be incoming or to shoot anyone who’d try to get away. The rest of them were infiltrating from the different exits of the building. Bambam and Taehyung from the east, through a thin window located there, Jaebum and Seokjin were coming in from the north, through the main entrance. Jinyoung was paired with Jimin and they were going through the back exit while Jackson and Jungkook were coming in through the side door. 

Bangtan had already done recon and there were only supposed to be about ten people in the building so Jackson wasn’t to worried about their success in getting in. It was rather what they’d find inside that worried him. There was little evidence that Namjoon was even there and even if Jackson really hoped he was there the prospect still scared him. There was no telling what the Unseen would do to a team leader from the Organization and if he wasn’t already dead he had surely been tortured for information.

“Alright,” Seokjin’s voice cut through the earpieces, “let’s go in.”

Jungkook slammed the door open and the men inside immediately scrambled for their guns but they were unprepared and the firefight was anticlimactic to say the least. They walked around the large building, looking for Namjoon as well as anything incriminating that they could use to bring the rest of the Unseen down. 

There was money on one of the tables and blueprints spread out over another. Just as Jackson was about to take a look at it he heard a loud scraping from where he’d seen Bambam and Taehyung saunter around before and he turned over to see them move a large shelf. He walked over and whistled when he saw the hidden latch underneath. 

The others came rushing over and Seokjin pushed his way past the younger men to pull open the latch and reveal a stairwell leading down to a corridor bellow. 

“Let’s not all go down there in case it’s a trap of some sort.” Jaebum said just as Seokjin and Jungkook started making their way down.

“Alright, Bambam and Jackson can join us.” Seokjin called over his shoulder, “The rest of you can keep looking for evidence up here.”

Jackson shared a quick look with Bambam and then proceeded to follow the other two men down. There was a flickering light in the corridor that was much shorter than Jackson had expected. There were only six doors and Seokjin and Jungkook had already opened two of them to reveal empty rooms. 

He saw Jungkook pull at another handle and felt his breath get caught in his throat when it didn’t budge. There must be something in there. He stepped forward and stopped Jungkook from dislocating his shoulder as he got ready to break the door down and instead pulled out a lock pick and got to work on getting the door open. Distractedly he was aware of Bambam saying only one of the other doors was also locked and he could hear him also working on that lock. 

It only took a minute for him to get the door open but Seokjin and Jungkook were understandably high strung and pushed Jackson aside to enter the room first. He peeked his head into the small room and saw Seokjin pull a form into his lap and he heard him mumble something under his breath. Jackson pushed the door open to shed some more light inside and he breathed a sigh of relief when he could make out Namjoon’s face. Jungkook and Seokjin seemed fairly calm so he assumed he was okay, for now at least.

“Jackson!” 

Jackson startled at Bambam’s panicked yell and turned to see the door he’d been working on open and he took a few steps to look inside and he froze at the sight. Bambam was holding a crumpled figure but Jackson could still see who it was and he staggered forward to feel for a pulse.

“Is that Yugyeom?” Jackson looked up to see Jungkook in the doorway with a shocked expression on his face, “What the fuck is he doing here?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you think! xoxo


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I’m going to start doing sneak peeks for upcoming chapters on my tumblr so if you’re interested you can check it out: kimseokjinismybabe.tumblr.com  
> The sneak peeks will be just as irregular as my updates though and it’s a whole mess of multifandom trash. But it’s there if you’re curious and you can always ask me questions and I might give little hints ;)

Jaebum had heard Bambam’s panicked yell from below and he locked eyes with Jinyoung before the two of them rushed downstairs. Jaebum wasn’t sure what he had been expecting but it wasn’t this. It wasn’t Yugyeom laying in Bambam’s lap, beaten and bloodied. The younger man almost looked dead but he could see his chest moving and Jaebum had felt himself calm down slightly. 

Together with Jackson he carried Yugyeom out and into the car. Even if he was alive they still needed to get him to a doctor. The wound on his head wasn’t bleeding but his hair was still matted in dried blood and he had to bite his tongue to keep himself from cursing at the situation. He had been planning on starting his own investigation on Yugyeom’s disappearance as soon as this job was done but now here they were. They had found Yugyeom but had no idea what their hacker was doing there.

* * *

Youngjae had heard that they found Yugyeom through the comms but it didn’t seem real until he saw Jackson and Jaebum carry him out through the scope of his rifle. He could see the bruises and dried blood on his face and he felt his blood boil in anger at the idea of what had happened to leave him in that state. He had quickly packed up his stuff and met up with Mark, Yoongi and Hoseok by their car when Jaebum told them they were heading straight back to headquarters to rendezvous. 

They were all silent. They knew jobs could come with surprises but none of them had been expecting this. Bangtan didn’t even know who Yugyeom was and Hoseok and Yoongi were obviously disturbed by their reaction to finding another captive in the warehouse. They fortunately didn’t ask any questions and Youngjae was grateful, he didn’t have any answers but he swore to himself that he’d find them.

* * *

Bambam worriedly ran his hand up and down Yugyeom’s neck as Jaebum drove them back to headquarters. He hadn’t been able to speak since he called out Jackson’s name in that room, it was like his throat had closed up with worry and confusion. Bambam wasn’t a medic but he had dealt with and seen enough injuries to have some understanding of human anatomy. And Yugyeom wasn’t that badly hurt, he was bruised and his head had been injured but Jinyoung had checked him over and said his pupils looked fine and doubted his head was too badly hurt.

So why wasn’t he waking up? 

They had slapped his face but he hadn’t even stirred. He just laid there completely unresponsive and Bambam didn’t understand why. They were nearing headquarters and he hoped the doctors at the infirmary would be able to figure it out. 

There were too many questions running through his mind and Bambam was too worried to even begin to try and find the answers. Why had Yugyeom been there? Why had the Unseen taken him? How had they managed to do it without leaving even a single trace? Nothing was making any sense and he hated that no one knew the answers. At least no one conscious knew.

* * *

Mark didn’t know what to think. When he heard that they had found Yugyeom he had felt an immense sense of relief, he had packed up his stuff as quickly as he could and rushed to the car so that they could head back. But then he heard the other’s conversation, how they didn’t understand why he wasn’t waking up and it was only then the confusion and worry set in. 

He tried to keep his mask of calm on, but the worry inside made him want to crawl out of his skin and he wasn’t sure if he was managing to hide it at all. They were all gathered in the waiting room as the doctors checked Yugyeom over. An hour had already passed and Bangtan had gotten to see Namjoon half an hour after they arrived and Mark hated himself for wishing their positions were switched. Bangtan were more than colleges but not quite friends to Mark and he was happy that their leader was okay but he wished their member was too.

* * *

Jaebum was pacing the waiting room and the youngest two were huddled close to each other on a couch. Jackson was uncharacteristically quiet while Mark remained stoic apart from his glances towards the door that lead inside the infirmary. Jinyoung didn’t know what to do with himself. He had tried to get Mark to sit down but he’d been shrugged off and Jaebum had only glared at him when he asked him to stop moving and Jinyoung promptly gave up. 

He had considered going over to Youngjae and Bambam but they were speaking in hushed tones as they comforted each other and Jinyoung didn’t want to do anything that would make Bambam start crying again. So he sat in his chair and watched his team. If someone had told Jinyoung that Yugyeom being hurt would leave them in this state when he first joined them he would have laughed in their face. But they had all grown fond of him and Jinyoung couldn’t even find it in him to be angry with himself for getting so attached.

* * *

Two days. Two days and Yugyeom still hadn’t woken up. The doctors had ran test after test but found no answer as to why he wasn’t regaining consciousness. There was no brain damage, no evidence of suffocation or drugs in his system. They had no explanation for Yugyeom’s condition and Jackson wanted to hurt them all for being so incompetent but fortunately he had enough self restraint to stop himself from snapping. 

They were taking turns visiting Yugyeom so the hospital room wouldn’t get too crowded like it had been when they were first let in. Bambam had managed to knock down a tray of medical supplies and Jinyoung nearly ripped Yugyeom’s IV out of his arm when Mark knocked into him in his haste to get closer to the bed. So they were taking turns and Jackson sat silently in the chair beside Yugyeom’s bed, hand hovering uncertainty over his. He wasn’t sure if they were close enough for him to touch him and he had to admit he felt guilty for believing Yugyeom had just ran off.

There was a knock on the door and Jackson stood up, thinking it was Youngjae coming for his turn to see Yugyeom but to his surprise it was Jungkook. He hadn’t seen any of Bangtan since they arrived at headquarters and he felt a bit bad about not going to visit Namjoon.

Jungkook closed the door behind him and gave a small nod in greeting before rounding the bed and looking at Yugyeom with quizzical expression.

“How’s Namjoon?” Jackson asked when the silence became unbearable and Jungkook looked up from his visual investigation of Yugyeom’s face.

“He’s okay. Pretty beat up but the doctors let him go home yesterday.” Jungkook smiled softly and Jackson mirrored the expression.

“I’m glad.”

“How is he?” Jungkook asked and gestured to Yugyeom’s unconscious form.

“They said his wounds are mostly superficial, he should have woken up by now.” Jackson tried to keep the frustration out of his voice but it was still obvious.

Jungkook nodded and suddenly pulled out his phone and turned on the flashlight. He leaned over Yugyeom’s face and peeled his eye open and shone the light in it. Jackson could only watch in confusion as the younger leaned closer to Yugyeom and whispered something in his ear that Jackson couldn’t make out before he straightened up and patted Yugyeom’s shoulder gently.

“It’s a technique for when you get captured.” Jungkook stated and Jackson raised his brows in question.

“What?”

“I’m pretty sure he has forced himself into a comatose state so he wouldn’t let information slip when he was caught. I’ve done it too, pretty damn effective.” Jungkook shrugged as if it was nothing.

“That’s so dangerous though.” Jackson said, horrified at the idea, “What if they just decide to kill you when you’re like that? You’d have no way of defending yourself.”

Jungkook laughed and Jackson stared at him, getting more and more confused by the second.

“I forget that not everyone are trained by the Imperium.” Jungkook said and the smile slipped off his face, “They don’t really care about us as long as we’re not liabilities. It’s better that we die than let information slip.”

It was no secret that Jungkook had been with the Imperium before he joined the Organization at the tender age of nineteen but no one really knew the circumstances around it. Even if the two organizations were reluctant allies there was still tension between the two and they rarely traded information, and having operatives switch over was next to unheard of. 

“Wait, are you saying Yugyeom was trained by the Imperium too?”

“He didn’t tell you?” Jungkook asked and glanced at Yugyeom, “Of course he didn’t. He always said he wanted to forget.”

Jackson had to sit down as he processed the information. It explained so much of Yugyeom’s behaviour. Why he was so hardworking and seemingly terrified of messing up and why he seemed to shrink in on himself any time the team criticised him. He was probably used to punishment if something went wrong. Everyone knew how strict the Imperium was even if they didn’t know the exact details of how they trained their operatives.

“Bring him home.” Jungkook’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts and he looked up to see him staring at Yugyeom with a fond expression on his face, “The fastest way to bring someone out of that state is to make them feel safe. So bring him home and take care of him.”

Jungkook started to leave but Jackson lurched out of his seat to grab hold of his arm, “How? How do we take care of him? How do we make him feel safe?”

“Talk to him.” Jungkook smiled softly, “You can still hear sometimes when you’re like that, so just talk to him, tell him he’s safe now. That you’ll protect him.”

Jackson nodded and tried to ignore the way that the last words almost sounded like a threat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you think!   
> xoxo


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tumblr: kimseokjinismybabe.tumblr.com  
> Twitter: @Ebbzon1

With the help of the nurses working for the Organization they brought Yugyeom home and got him settled in his room. He was connected to an IV and a feeding tube and Jinyoung had never seen the man look so small. Somehow he had looked stronger when he was in the infirmary, Jinyoung supposed it was because the bed there had been smaller than the queen sized bed in his room. 

Jinyoung pulled Yugyeom’s desk chair over to the bed and sat down next to the bed. His hand hovered above Yugyeom’s and he shook his head against his own ridiculousness and let his hand fall to grip the limp one. His hand was cold and Jinyoung forced himself to watch the slow rise and fall of the younger’s chest so he wouldn’t spiral into a panic from thinking he was dead. 

“I really hope you can hear me.” he said slowly and gripped the hand tightly, “Jackson told us that we need to let you know that you’re safe so I hope you can hear this; you are safe. We found you and you’re home. We won’t let anyone hurt you. You. Are. Safe.”

* * *

Bambam sat in the chair next to Yugyeom’s bed and sighed at the state of the younger man. The bruises were fading but there was ugly greens and yellows tinting his usually perfect skin, he noticed there was a mole under his right eye and chuckled slightly at not having noticed it before. There was a lot he hadn’t noticed and his face fell at the realisation. Bambam was an expert in acquiring information yet so much had slipped his attention. 

He had been able to tell that Yugyeom had probably been through something traumatic, the way he almost always seemed anxious, scared of doing something wrong was a dead giveaway. Yet he hadn’t realised just how bad it had been. He knew what the Imperium was like better than any of the others, he had been tasked with finding out how the Imperium conducted their operation in the past and even if he hadn’t been able to get the full picture, what he had seen had been enough.

The Imperium recruited people young, people who didn’t have anything and used their naivety and longing to belong to make perfect soldiers. They broke people down through intense training and sometimes torturous methods until they were a blank slate. Until they were something they could mold and form into whatever they wanted. It broke his heart knowing Yugyeom had went through that, even if he didn’t know the specifics.

“Hey buddy,” he started and let his hand gently trail over Yugyeom’s arm, “I don’t know if you can hear me, but you’re safe here. You’re with us and we won't let anything happen to you. We’ll do better as your teammates, we’ll keep you safe, alright?”

* * *

Mark had been angry at first. He couldn’t believe that Yugyeom had kept his history a secret from them. If they had just known, they would have understood him better and they would have been better, kinder, to him. But then he had helped Youngjae bathe Yugyeom’s limp body and he’d seen the scars; burns and marks that looked similar to the ones Mark himself had received the times when he’d been captured and he had understood. It had taken Mark months of knowing the guys before he allowed himself to change with them, to show his physical body, knowing full and well that the others would know his mind was faring way worse than what the marks on his body showed. 

He couldn’t blame Yugyeom for wanting to keep it hidden, he couldn’t blame him for wanting to forget. He had been the same once but he had learnt that the best way to get better was to rely on the people you trust, to let them be the stability when you crumble. He hoped he could be that for Yugyeom.

“I get why you didn’t tell us, and you should know we’re not angry with you.” Mark said, hoping his voice came out as comforting as he intended, “We want to help you, so when you wake up, know that you have our support. We really care about you Yugyeom and we’ll be here no matter what.”

* * *

Youngjae peeled away the covers from Yugyeom’s body and placed himself kneeled on the foot of the bed. He gripped Yugyeom’s leg and bent it at the knee before pushing it up towards his chest and then repeating the motion. The Organization said they could send physical therapists and nurses to take care of Yugyeom’s needs but Youngjae told them not to. He had worked as a nurse for a couple months before he got caught up in the world he now resided in and he’d never been more grateful to that experience than now.   
Jackson had said they needed to let Yugyeom know he was safe and taken care of, and Youngjae had a feeling letting strangers touch Yugyeom when he was this vulnerable probably wouldn’t make him feel very safe. So Youngjae took it upon himself to change his IV’s and take out his catheter and everything needed to take care of his body. The others had been helpful too, with washing Yugyeom and getting him dressed, because even if Yugyeom looked small like this, he was still bigger than all of them.

“You should know I wouldn’t do all this for just anyone.” Youngjae said as he gripped Yugyeom’s other leg to mimic the movements he’d done with the previous leg, “But I really want you to wake up. Even if the others won’t say it, you should know that we’ve become insanely fond of you and we’d do anything to keep you safe. So don’t be afraid to come back to us.”

* * *

Jackson felt silly. Speaking to someone who’s unconscious was ridiculous. But Jungkook had told him it would help, so he did it. He talked about how they found him, about how concerned they’d all been when he went missing. He told him how they declined every mission they’d been assigned since they found him, how they wanted him to be okay before they went back to work.

“We’re a team, you know.” Jackson said and squeezed the hand he was holding, “We want to do this together, all of us. That includes you, and I know we didn’t treat you right in the beginning but you’re in our team and we’ll do better. We’ll keep you safe.”

He shook his head as he felt tears form in his eyes. He felt so damn guilty. They still didn’t know how Yugyeom ended up in that warehouse but Jackson felt like it was his fault. Maybe if they’d been closer, he would have realised that something had been wrong, maybe all of this could have been prevented. 

“I’m really sorry, Yugyeom.” he said with a sniffle, “This should never have happened but I promise you, we’ll make sure you’re never hurt again.”

* * *

He was supposed to be the leader. He was supposed to be the one with the answers, with the plans. Yet, Jaebum felt completely out of his dept in all of this. He had tried to figure out how Yugyeom was taken in the first place but there was no evidence to explain what had happened. He needed Yugyeom to wake up so he could figure it out.

No. That was a lie. He needed Yugyeom to wake up so that he could know that the younger was okay. He hadn’t been able to sleep properly since they brought him home. Him being just a few doors down from his own room made him wake up throughout the night, needing to check on him and make sure he was still there. 

He had untangled himself from Jinyoung’s hold and padded out of bed to check on Yugyeom and for some reason it hadn’t been enough to just sit there for a few minutes and he ended up staying there for two hours. The sun was rising and others would start to wake up soon so he figured he shouldn’t be sitting in there like a creep and he stood up to go back to bed but when he glanced at Yugyeom’s face, he froze.

Yugyeom’s eyes were open. 

“Hey.” Yugyeom’s voice was raspy and Jaebum felt his breath get caught in his throat.

“You’re awake.” Jaebum said in disbelief and Yugyeom gave a small nod, “Oh my god! You’re awake! Guys!” Jaebum yelled and headed for the door to go tell the others but then froze. He couldn’t just leave Yugyeom.

He went back to the bed and gently helped Yugyeom sit up against the headboard, and if Jaebum held onto him a bit longer than necessary, well, no one needed to know that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you think!  
> xoxo


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry it has taken me so long to update, I've just had a lot going on lately but hopefully I'll stay on track now that it's summer (no promises tho).   
> I think there'll be three or four more chapters until this is over so hope you'll stay along for the ride!
> 
> Tumblr: kimseokjinismybabe.tumblr.com  
> Twitter: @Ebbzon1

They gathered in the living room as they waited for Youngjae to finish his examination of Yugyeom’s health and Jaebum felt a smile tug at his lips when he heard the shower running shortly after Youngjae joined them. Finally the youngest was up and about on his own and even though Jaebum had noticed how weak he still was, he figured he should count his blessings, no matter how small they were. 

As they waited for Yugyeom to be done Bambam and Jinyoung went to the kitchen to make Yugyeom some food. Yugyeom shuffled into the room on shaky legs and Jackson immediately went to help him get settled on the couch, gently wrapping a blanket around his shoulders and the younger smiled cutely at the soft action. Jaebum could see fond smiles on Mark’s and Jackson’s faces and bit back a smile of his own. Those two had always had though exteriors but it was their small actions that showed their true colors.

Bambam and Jinyoung soon joined them in the living room and Bambam handed Yugyeom a large bowl of soup; something light on the stomach as per Youngjae’s instructions. They sat in silence for a while as Yugyeom slowly ate and Jaebum didn’t doubt that the others were just as happy as him to see the youngest do things on his own. He only managed to eat half of the soup before he seemed to grow tired and Jackson gently took the bowl from his hands. 

“Thank you.” Yugyeom said after a beat of silence and Jaebum only nodded in response, “Really, thank you. I heard some of what you guys said and it really means a lot to me that you made the effort to bring me out of that state.”

“Of course.” Bambam said and Jaebum frowned when he noticed the tears in the younger’s eyes, “We wanted you back with us so of course we’d do anything to bring you back.”

“Why did you do it?” Jinyoung asked suddenly and Yugyeom looked at him in confusion, “Why did you force yourself into that state?”

“So that I wouldn’t tell them anything.” Yugyeom shrugged and smiled a little, “Pretty nifty, huh?”

“No.” Jaebum disagreed, he stared straight at Yugyeom and the smile slipped off his face to be replaced by confusion once again, “You could have gotten yourself killed, Yugyeom. That’s not _nifty_.”

It broke Jaebum’s heart when the confusion on Yugyeom’s face didn’t disappear. He couldn’t believe that Yugyeom couldn’t understand why what he did was wrong, dangerous. But he didn’t blame him, not one bit, this was the Imperium’s doing and Jaebum was going to make them pay for the damage they’d done.

“Look, Yugyeom,” Mark started and Yugyeom’s gaze flicked over to the oldest, “I know the Imperium have fucked up values but it ain't like that with us. If our enemies get information, yeah, it will become a problem but we can fix that. You can’t fix someone after they’re dead. The job doesn’t come first, alright? Not with us.”

“Okay.” Yugyeom said after a while and it sounded like he was telling the truth.

* * *

Jinyoung was restless. He wanted to know how Yugyeom got captured, why he was captured, but he didn’t want to put the younger through any unnecessary stress. He still didn’t quite understand how the comatose state Yugyeom went into worked but he figured he wasn’t completely gone during it with how he’d been able to hear what they’d said to him while unconcious. He could only imagine how terrifying it must have been, to be surrounded by enemies while not able to do a single thing about it and he couldn’t figure out why Yugyeom would be willing to put himself through that. Even though he had told them it was to keep him from spilling information, it horrified Jinyoung to think that Yugyeom would value his life below some intel. 

Jinyoung managed to keep himself from cornering Yugyeom until exactly three days after he’d woken up. The younger shuffled into the kitchen where Youngjae and Jinyoung were making breakfast and Jinyoung couldn’t stop himself. He just needed to know. 

“What happened?” Jinyoung asked as he handed Yugyeom a plate of scrambled eggs, “When you were captured, what happened exactly?”

Yugyeom sighed deeply but put down his utensils and looked up at him, “It was right after you guys finished the mission, when you were getting ready to head back. Someone entered the house without me noticing and then there was a gun pointed at my head.” Jinyoung sat down next to the hacker and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder when his voice shook as he recounted the events, “I didn’t even see how many there were before everything went dark, I think they pistol whipped me to knock me unconscious.”

Yugyeom trailed off and Youngjae leaned over the counter to grab one of his hands, “Can you tell us what you remember after that?”

Yugyeom let out a shaky breath but nodded with determination, “I woke up in this dark room and Proditor was there, he kept talking but I couldn’t really make out what he was saying because my head was hurting so bad. But I understood he wanted something from me so while I was falling unconscious I made myself go away, like, force my mind to shut off so I wouldn’t wake up.” Yugyeom looked at them and frowned slightly, “I don’t know how to explain the technique properly but I forced myself into that state and then next thing I know is your guy’s voices telling me it’s safe to wake up.”

“Why didn’t you tell us about your history with the Imperium. We would have been able to help you earlier if you had.”

“I know, but I didn’t want you to know.” Yugyeom said and looked down, almost ashamed.

“Why is that?” a new voice cut in and they looked up to see Jackson in the doorway.

“I know what the Organization thinks of the Imperium. You view us as monsters, or worse, victims. I don’t want to be either.” Yugyeom said and there was this sadness in his voice that Jinyoung had never heard before, “But I think I’m both.”

* * *

Yugyeom startled slightly at the knock at his door and sat up on his bed when Jaebum peaked his head in. He nodded his head in question and Yugyeom gestured for him to come in. He was sure Jinyoung had told the leader what he’d told them this morning and he wasn’t surprised that Jaebum wanted to speak to him. He was actually surprised at how long it had taken him to come see him in private. 

“Can we talk about what happened?” Jaebum asked hesitantly and Yugyeom couldn’t keep his brows from raising in question at the leader’s tentative behaviour, “We don’t have to if you’re not ready but I need to know eventually.”

“It’s fine.” Yugyeom smiled and Jaebum sat down at the edge of the bed, “What do you want to know?”

“Proditor.” Jaebum said simply and Yugyeom hoped the sharp intake of breath he took wasn’t as obvious as it felt, “You know him, you knew who it was when I first brought you that file but you didn’t say anything. Why?”

“We trained together.” Yugyeom forced his heartbeat to slow down, he just had to focus on the relevant information, no need to think about what training actually entailed, “We were both hackers and I guess we were rivals. When me and Jungkook escaped, I had to bypass his system. His failure was my freedom.”

“So he captured you as revenge for you escaping.” Jaebum asked and Yugyeom shook his head.

“Not exactly. Failure in the Imperium is unacceptable and his mistake meant they lost two of their operatives. The punishment must have been horrible,” a shiver ran through his body and Jaebum gently placed a warm hand on his leg and Yugyeom felt the care radiating from the older man, “there’s no way he’s still with the Imperium.” 

“It was the Unseen that captured you and Namjoon.” Jaebum said and Yugyeom nodded, it made sense that Proditor would find work for one of the Imperium’s enemies if he’d gotten away from them, “He must have joined them. But I don’t understand why he wouldn’t have just killed you. Don’t get me wrong, I’m so relieved that you’re okay but it doesn’t make much sense.”

“He’s always enjoyed messing with his targets, even when we were young.” Yugyeom shrugged, “He probably wants revenge on both me and Jungkook so he has to have us both before he can extract his revenge.”

“So why did they take Namjoon?” Jaebum frowned and Yugyeom couldn’t help but chuckle.

“He can’t capture Jungkook, he was the best of us. Proditor is greedy but he’s not dumb.” Yugyeom said simply, there was no way Proditor would have been able to capture Jungkook, so he must have used Namjoon as bait, “He’s not one to give up either, he’s not going to stop just because you foiled his plans this time.”

“We’ll stop him.” Jaebum said with determination and Yugyeom smiled softly at him, “I’ve declined every mission the Organization have assigned to us, we’re going to stop Proditor. He’s not going to hurt you again.”

“But what if he hurts you?” Yugyeom couldn’t help but ask, “He already hurt Jinyoung and Mark just to mess with me, he’s capable of doing it again, especially since he’s with the Unseen now.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Jaebum said and squeezed Yugyeom’s leg where his hand was still resting, “We’re a team Yugyeom, and we protect it no matter what, no matter the risks.”

Yugyeom couldn’t believe himself when he found himself nodding in understanding. He hadn’t realised just how much he’d come to trust these men, how much he understood Jaebum’s talk of teamwork now. He believed in Jaebum, he believed in all of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you think!   
> xoxo


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry it's taken me ages to update (again) but here's a shitty chapter for you!
> 
> Come talk to me on my tumblr and twitter:  
> Tumblr: kimseokjinismybabe.tumblr.com  
> Twitter: @Ebbzon1

Youngjae felt kind of aimless now that he didn't have to take care of Yugyeom. The younger man was recovering well and Youngjae could tell he was getting a bit flustered by how much the team was hovering around him. Understandably so. Yugyeom hadn't really spent all that much time around them and for a long time they acted like they weren't even on the same team so to suddenly have them flock around him like mother hens was probably overwhelming.

So Youngjae tried to take a step back to give him his space but with no missions or left over work he didn't really know what to do with himself. Youngjae had never been one to do nothing. He knew Jaebum was working with Bangtan to gather intel on the Unseen and Proditor but he hadn't asked for help and Youngjae could understand. The leader often worked the most efficiently alone and they had long since learnt to leave him alone until he had everything ready for a mission. But Jaebum would usually task them with something to do to help - it had taken months for him to start doing that, but still - but for some reason Jaebum felt the need to do this alone. Youngjae suspected it was because of his guilt, however unfounded it may be, it had a tendency to make Jaebum fall back on old habits.

A knock at his door snapped Youngjae out of his thoughts and he looked up from the book in his lap that he had long since stopped trying to read to see Yugyeom enter.

"Can I talk to you?"

Youngjae put his book down and sat up on the bed, "Yeah, sure. What's up?"

"I wanted to thank you." Yugyeom said as he sat down on the bed, "I heard you were the one to take care of me the most and I'm really grateful."

"You don't need to thank me Yugyeom." Youngjae patted Yugyeom's back softly, "But you're welcome, I'd happily do it again." he smiled, "Not that I want to ever need to again though." he quickly amended.

Yugyeom barked out a laugh and Youngjae loved the sound more than anything. Damn, he was getting all mushy.

"I'd hope not." Yugyeom said and there was humor in his voice that Youngjae had never heard from him before, "I did hear from Jackson that you seemed to enjoy it though."

"You can't blame me, I got to go back to my roots as a nurse for a bit there." Youngjae defended and suddenly a contemplative look flashed over Yugyeom's face.

"How'd you end up in all of this?" Yugyeom asked after a moment's hesitation.

"I'm not sure," Youngjae frowned, he had never really given it much thought, "I think I just got tired of seeing the victims of the corruption in this damned world. And then Jinyoung showed up with an offer to make a change."

"What was the offer?"

"To kill a politician." Youngjae said and looked at Yugyeom to see him be completely unfazed, "I made a change and after that I didn't want to go back to just patching up the victims. Not after realising I could prevent the wounds from happening in the first place."

"Is it wrong of me to say I'm glad you became a murderer?" Yugyeom said with a nervous laugh, "I mean if you didn't, then I wouldn't have met you and to be honest, if it wasn't for your kindness there in the beginning I probably would have left."

"It's not wrong if I'm glad too." Youngjae chuckled, "This team is the best thing that ever happened to me."

"I think it's the best thing that happened to me too."

* * *

Bambam was still shaking from his nightmare when he padded into the kitchen late in the night, or was it early morning? It didn't really matter though. Not when horrifying images flashed behind his eyelids, images of Mark being beaten and Jackson getting stabbed as they mixed unnaturally with the image of Jaebum's feverish state as he fought the poison in his system. Though the images that his mind made up, the ones that weren't memories, somehow rattled him more. He thinks it's because he can't know if they're accurate or not, if Yugyeom's defenseless body really got strung up by a rope around his wrists as the enemies beat the shit out of him for no reason. There was no way of knowing and he couldn't even ask the man in question since he had been to deep in the comatose state to have any knowledge of what happened to him.

"What are you doing up?" a raspy voice said from behind him and if it wasn't for years of experience Bambam probably would have startled at the sound.

He turned around and sighed when he saw Jackson leaning against the doorframe, "Nightmares."

"The usual ones?" Jackson asked and simply stepped forward to wrap his arms around him and Bambam immediately melted into the embrace.

"Yes and no." Bambam mumbled into the crook of his neck and Jackson let out a questioning hum, "It's the usual ones but now Yugyeom's there too. I hate not knowing what exactly happened."

"I get what you mean." Jackson said and ran his hand over the back of Bambam's head, "But maybe it's better that way. That we don't know."

"Maybe." Bambam said but he wasn't so sure.

"Wanna come to bed with me?" Jackson asked after a while and pulled away from the hug, "It usually helps not to be alone, we don't have to go to sleep if you don't want to."

"I don't want to keep you up." Bambam shook his head and Jackson scoffed.

"You really think I'll be able to sleep when I know you're upset and awake?" even in the darkness Bambam knew what Jackson's face looked like, a teasing smile but wise serious eyes, "Come on, let's go to bed."

"Okay." Bambam whispered and let Jackson lead him to his room by the hand.

* * *

They were eating lunch together when Jaebum came back and Jinyoung sighed at his boyfriend's disheveled state. The idiot probably hadn't slept in the days he'd been working with Bangtan. His eyes were bright though and Jinyoung immediately knew he'd found something.

"Proditor is back in the city. He contacted Jungkook and he's setting up a meet." Jaebum said as he sat down and Jinyoung saw the way Yugyeom tensed up.

"It's a trap."

"I know." Jaebum said simply, "We have a plan."

"There's no use, he probably already knows." Yugyeom shook his head, "He's smart and there's no way he'll make it easy if he has the chance to get Jungkook."

"We need to take this chance though, don't we?" Mark spoke up and when Jinyoung turned to look at him he saw the familiar look of determination burning in his eyes, "He's a threat to you so we need to bring him down as soon as possible."

"I don't like this." Yugyeom shook his head again and stood up, "I need to talk to Jungkook."

They sat in silence for a while after he left and Jinyoung really tried not to glare at Jaebum.

"You should have brought us in on this investigation." Jackson spoke Jinyoung's thoughts, "You can't just come in and drop that on us, especially when you know how skittish Yugyeom is."

Jaebum looked down at his lap and Jinyoung couldn't help but feel a bit happy that Jaebum was for once put in his place. He knew just how guilty Jaebum felt - Jinyoung felt it too - but it didn’t mean he had to make up for it on his own. Besides, Yugyeom was the victim here, he should have a say in how he gets his payback. Jinyoung didn’t doubt that Yugyeom felt out of control in all of this and giving Proditor any leeway took even more control out of the situation.

“We need to bring him down.” Jaebum said and Jinyoung sighed.

“We should let Yugyeom run point on this. He’s the one in danger and he knows the most about the situation.” Jinyoung could already see Jaebum’s resolve dissipate, “Give him back control of the situation, he deserves that much.”

“I agree.” Bambam said, “It will show him we trust him too. I get that you want to make up for the way we treated him so giving him a chance to lead will do that.”

“I guess you’re right.” Jaebum sighed, “I’ll talk to him when he gets back.”

* * *

“Good to see you up and about.” Jungkook said when Yugyeom entered his room, without even turning in his chair, “Took you long enough.” he added and turned to face him with a teasing smile. 

“You can’t meet with proditor.” Yugyeom didn’t have time for any small talk, “He won’t go along with whatever plan you have, especially when he has the Unseen on his side.”

“I know that.” Jungkook said and his tone was cold now, “But he’s been on our tail for too long, we finally have a chance to kill him. We’ll finally be completely free from the Imperium.”

“I didn't think you were this stupid.” Yugyeom scoffed with a roll of his eyes. 

“That’s rich coming from you.” Jungkook said and despite the aggressive glare, Yugyeom didn’t react, he was used to it. 

“I’m not going to do this Kook.” he said with finality, they’ve had enough aimless arguments to last several lifetimes, “We need to be smart about this, we can’t let him have any control.”

“And how do you suppose we do that?” Jungkook sighed, the fight seemingly draining out of him as he realised Yugyeom wasn’t budging.

“I haven’t gotten that far yet.” he said sheepishly and rubbed a hand at the back of his neck, “Give me a couple days and I’ll figure it out, we’ll take him down together, without bringing our teams into danger.” 

“Okay” Jungkook agreed after a moment’s deliberation before casting a smirk over at him, “So they’re _your_ team now, huh?” 

Yugyeom froze, he hadn’t really meant for it to mean that much but now that he thought about it, he realised it rang true. They were _his_ team. “I guess so.”

“I’m glad they’re good people. I was worried when I heard you weren’t on your own anymore. We’re vulnerable with others.”

“Yet you’ve been with Bangtan for three years now.” Yugyeom teased and Jungkook flushed slightly. 

“They have their ways of getting past your defenses.”

“I think that means something different with Taehyung.” Yugyeom smirked

Jungkook sputtered and got even redder, “Shut up.” 

Yugyeom raised his hands in surrender and Jungkook eventually calmed down. It took some time though, much to Yugyeom’s amusement. He couldn’t believe he was watching the man who used to be as emotionless and stoic as a statue back when they were kids. It had taken Yugyeom nearly a year of knowing Jungkook before he got to see him express any other emotion than anger. Not that he was much better back then, but he had always been the more emotional one of the two. 

“Maybe it’s good to be vulnerable.” Yugyeom said and for some reason he felt all warm.

“I think it is.” Jungkook agreed with a small smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you think!  
> xoxo


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A quick update for once!  
> Just two chapters left after this one (finally!)
> 
> Come talk to me over on my tumblr and twitter:  
> Tumblr: kimseokjinismybabe.tumblr.com  
> Twitter: @Ebbzon1

Mark couldn’t sleep. It wasn’t an uncommon occurrence but that didn’t make it any less frustrating. Especially now, when he didn’t really know what was keeping him up. He found himself outside their apartment building, his room felt too crammed and he didn’t want the others to see him like this. They had enough to worry about as it was, no need to bring his insomnia to their attention. 

Yugyeom had come back just a few hours after leaving and Mark had been surprised by how relieved he had been to see him come home safe. Knowing that Proditor was back in the city was terrifying but Mark wasn’t really concerned about him doing anything so soon, especially since the hacker was probably focused on Jungkook. 

Yugyeom had told them that the plan was called off, that he wanted to figure out how to get his revenge on Proditor and they had all agreed. Though Mark had noticed Jaebum was a bit reluctant but the leader had given in nonetheless. Mark could understand that Yugyeom wanted to get his revenge but it didn’t dissipate his own craving for it. He wanted to make that psycho pay for hurting Yugyeom and he was sure the others wanted to as well. But for now he’d let Yugyeom run point until he was ready to let them in on his plans.

He glanced over at the gate of the building before taking out his lighter and fiddling with the packet of cigarettes. He was sure if Jackson saw him like this he’d get an earful, the man had been on a health craze since they brought Yugyeom home and even before that he’d complain non stop about Mark’s nicotine addiction. 

He closed his eyes and leaned back against the cold wall, letting the smoke itch it’s way down to his lungs before calmly letting it out. He felt his previous anxiety slowly ebb away and he tried not to think about how it would return eventually. The night air was pleasant and the only sounds were from a few stray cars passing by. It had been a while since he’d last been so free in the sense that he didn't have any work to get done and he supposed the calmness of it all is what threw him off. An occupational hazard, it seemed.

“You know smoking is bad for you.” a voice called from his left and he opened his eyes in surprise to see Youngjae come walking towards him from down the street.

“Jackson’s told me as much.” Mark chuckled and Youngjae came to a stop in front of him, “What are you doing out?”

“Got restless being cooped up.” Youngjae shrugged and beckoned for the packet still in his hand, “Guessing you’re in the same seat?”

Mark only nodded and handed Youngjae the packet with a sigh. But instead of pocketing the cigarettes like he had expected Youngjae pulled one out and put it between his lips and Mark lit it for him with furrowed brows.

“Didn’t know you smoked.” he commented and Youngjae shrugged again, letting out a breath of smoke. 

“I quit but I think tonight calls for one.”

“Why’s that?” Mark raised his brows and Youngjae let out a deep breath, and it somehow sounded heavy with emotion.

“I don’t know really.” Youngjae said before bringing the cigarette to his mouth for another hit, “I just feel like something bad is coming. It’s been too calm.”

“I get what you mean.” Mark sighed and mushed the butt against the wall to put it out.

“I really hope my gut is wrong about this.” Youngjae said and Mark closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall.

“It never is though.”

* * *

Yugyeom had been working all night and he could feel himself get more and more anxious as his plan got more complicated. He didn’t have all the information he needed and he almost regretted calling Jungkook’s plan off. But he knew it was too dangerous to give Proditor any more control of the situation. He just needed to figure out where he was and go from there. But he didn’t have that information the frustration was eating him up.

He walked to the kitchen on heavy feet. He needed some food, and coffee, a lot of coffee. He turned on the brewer and stared into the cupboard for food but he didn’t see anything appetizing. Cup noodles didn’t sound good but he had no energy to cook himself anything and besides, he didn’t have time to do it. 

“We can help, you know.” Bambam’s voice startled Yugyeom out of his trance like state, “You don’t have to do this on your own.”

“I need to.” Yugyeom said simply and Bambam shook his head at him.

“Why? I get that you want revenge but don’t you think the rest of us want that too? We saw what he did to you, it was scary.” his voice had started out strong but the last words were spoken just above a whisper.

“I know, but I know him better than anyone. I’ll bring him down.”

“Fine.” Bambam sighed, “But can you let me cook you something? You should go take a nap and I’ll bring you some food later.”

Yugyeom wanted to protest but the prospect of sleep sounded too tempting and he nodded, “Okay.” Yugyeom padded into the hallway before stopping and glancing back into the kitchen, “Thank you Bambam.”

“It’s fine Yugyeom, we all wanna help.” Bambam assured and Yugyeom smiled at the smaller man. He’s come to realise it’s the little things that matter.

* * *

Jaebum knew this was stupid, but he had never claimed to be particularly smart when his emotions were running high. He hadn’t thought things through when he opened the images sent to him from an email address he didn’t recognize. Fear had consumed him and he had rushed out the apartment without even telling Jinyoung where he was going. It was probably better that way. If Jinyoung had known he’d probably end up just as stupid and emotional as Jaebum had been on his drive over. 

He glanced at the pictures again and felt his blood boil. There was Mark and Youngjae smoking outside the apartment and Bambam and Jackson at the local grocery shop. A picture peeking into Jaebum and Jinyoung room, showing the two of them getting dressed for the day and a few of Yugyeom getting in his car. He hated the fact that someone had managed to take the photos and worse that they were all so close. How they hadn’t noticed them being taken, Jaebum didn’t know, and it made it all the more disturbing.

“Didn’t think you’d come alone.” A voice suddenly called out in the empty warehouse and Jaebum looked over to see a man coming towards him.

“I can say the same for you. Proditor?” Jaebum squinted in the dim lighting and frowned slightly, he had expected the man to be bigger given the threat he was but he was barely over 5’5. 

“The man, the myth, the legend.” Proditor joked - he fucking _joked_ \- “But you can call me Deoksu, I think it’s only fair since I know so much about you, Im Jaebum.”

“Why did you want me here?” Jaebum didn’t care what Prod- _Deoksu_ knew “To kill me? Lure Yugyeom here?”

“Hit the nail on the coffin there Jaebumie,” Deoksu said and Jaebum could hear the smile in his voice, “I want you here to do both, but I think I’ll wait a bit before I get Yugyeom over here. I wanna talk to you.”

“Yeah?” Jaebum asked and discreetly reached behind his back to grip his gun, “What do you want to talk about?”

“Yugy of course.” he said with a laugh and walked closer, “I wanna know how much you know about your hacker.”

“Not much.” Jaebum said and frowned when Deoksu finally came into the light, his face was a mess of scar tissue and his nose was bent like if it was broken but there was no bruising, as if it had never been set properly, “I know he was with the Imperium, and that he bested you.”

The smile slipped off Deoksu’s face at that and Jaebum gripped his gun a little tighter, “He escaped when I was getting beaten, it was a cowards move and he knew it.”

“Your system should have been better.” a new voice suddenly called out and Jaebum looked over to see Yugyeom stalking towards them, “Not my fault you got punished, you were the one who nearly killed that girl in training.”

“How did you know we were going to be here?” Jaebum asked when Yugyeom finally came to stand next to him.

“You left your computer open.” Yugyeom shrugged, eyes not leaving Deoksu.

“No i didn’t.”

“No you didn’t.” Yugyeom agreed, “I hacked your phone.”

Jaebum almost laughed at that but Deoksu suddenly pulled out a gun and he felt his heart stop when he saw it pointed straight at Yugyeom.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay wow. I hate this chapter but honestly, at this point I just wanna finish the story so... sorry for this crap :/

Yugyeom had heard Jaebum leave in a rush and his anxiety had skyrocketed. He had immediately opened his computer and tracked Jaebum’s car and watched in confusion as it headed for the docks. He had hacked into his phone and pulled up the latest apps he’d accessed and saw the email with the photos and the simple message telling the leader where to go. 

After that he got his gun from the hidden compartment in his bag and stole Jackson’s keys for his motorcycle and took off towards the docks. He couldn’t believe Jaebum would be so stupid as to meet with Proditor on his own, but he supposed he could understand. It was scary that the man had so much information on them that he could take pictures of them unnoticed. 

He could hear muffled voices from inside and let out a breath of relief when he recognized Jaebum’s voice, he wasn’t dead, yet. He carefully opened the door and heard Proditor’s teasing voice and Jaebum’s dismissive response. Yugyeom quickly typed out a message on his phone and sent it to Bambam, he didn’t know how this would go down and maybe the older man was right in that they could help.

“-with the Imperium, and that he bested you.” Yugyeom tuned back into the conversation and mentally cursed Jaebum for baiting Proditor. 

“He escaped when I was getting beaten, it was a cowards move and he knew it.” Proditor said angrily and Yugyeom scoffed.

“Your system should have been better.” he called out and the two men looked over at him as he walked towards them, “Not my fault you got punished, you were the one who nearly killed that girl in training.”

“How did you know we were going to be here?” Jaebum asked when Yugyeom finally came to stand next to him.

“You left your computer open.” Yugyeom shrugged, eyes not leaving Proditor. He couldn’t let his guard down.

“No i didn’t.” Jaebum said with confusion

“No you didn’t.” Yugyeom shrugged, “I hacked your phone.”

Proditor pulled out a gun and pointed it straight at his face but Yugyeom didn’t even flinch. He heard Jaebum gasp though and he rolled his eyes. Jaebum really had no idea who they were dealing with. 

“Let Jaebum go.” Yugyeom spoke calmly, “This is between us Deoksu. Leave him out of it.”

“I don’t think so. The team you’re with became involved the second you joined them.” Deoksu said and flicked his gun over to Jaebum, “You don’t deserve what you got. I didn’t deserve what I got.”

“You wanted to get out too.” Yugyeom said and stepped in front of Jaebum, getting Deoksu’s attention, “You can’t blame me for actually doing it.”

“You knew what was going to happen to me when you did though.” Deoksu said and he sounded pissed, “They nearly killed me because you escaped, you and Jungkook made me into this.”

“You did it to yourself.” Yugyeom shook his head and he felt Jaebum tug at the back of his jacket, wanting him to get out of the line of fire, but he wouldn’t step down. He couldn’t let Jaebum get hurt, “You had the skills to get out too, you could have escaped on your own.”

“I don’t want to be alone!” Deoksu suddenly yelled and Yugyeom reeled back at the volume of his voice, “How come you get to have a team while I’m stuck with a bunch of emotionless mercenaries?”

“You can’t blame him for that.” Jaebum said and pushed Yugyeom out of the way to face Deoksu, “He earned his place in the Organization with his skills and you did the same with the Unseen. Just let this go and leave my hacker alone.”

“It’s cute that he’s protecting you.” Deoksu chuckled, staring at Yugyeom but keeping his gun pointed at Jaebum, “He thinks you’re incapable, Inprotunus. He’s your leader and he just thinks you’re a hacker.”

“Shut up.” Yugyeom hissed and tried to put himself between the two again but Jaebum wouldn’t budge.

“You really have them fooled, don’t you? Maybe I should show them all that you’ve done, I’ve still got all the files.” Deoksu said and Yugyeom saw the glance of confusion Jaebum sent him.

“Shut up.” he repeated but Deoksu only laughed and Yugyeom couldn’t take it any longer. He tackled him to the ground, flinching slightly at the sound of the gun going off.

“Oh, it’s been so long since we last sparred.” Deoksu said once the air that Yugyeom knocked out of his lungs got back and he rolled them over, landing a couple quick hits on his face, “Your leader will finally see what you’re made of.”

He was distantly aware of cars pulling up outside as he rolled them over again and pinned Deoksu’s hands to the floor, “I said shut up!”

“Hey Jaebum!” Deoksu called out, “If you’re still conscious, should I tell you about Yugy’s first kill?”

Yugyeom quickly looked back at that and was shocked to see Jaebum crumpled to the ground with a hand pressed over his shoulder, blood seeping between his fingers. How hadn’t he noticed that? He was too damned distracted by Deoksu. 

“I’m fine.” Jaebum said with a gasp when they locked eyes and Yugyeom nearly cried at the lack of anger in his face. He just got Jaebum shot and he still smiled reassuringly at him.

Yugyeom turned back to Deoksu and punched him hard in the face before reaching for his gun.

“He didn’t even flinch the first time he killed a person. It was a mother of three, they were right there and he just slit her throat.” Deoksu laughed, blood in his mouth, “The best part is that he was just fourteen. You’re working with a psychopa-”

_BANG_

Yugyeom had managed to stand up during Deoksu’s little speech and cocked his gun. He pulled the trigger without a moment’s hesitation and turned away from Deoksu’s body to see the others crowded around Jaebum and he took a few staggering steps towards them.

“I told him to shut up.” Yugyeom choked out, feeling the adrenaline drain out of him and he fell to his knees.

The last thing he was aware of was Jackson’s worried face in front of him before darkness took him.

* * *

Jackson could see the way Jinyoung’s hands were gripping the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles were turning white and he suspected his hands would look the same if he was the one driving. None of them had even realised Jaebum and Yugyeom were gone until Bambam woke them up, showing them the text message from Yugyeom with only an address attached. Jackson wasn’t sure if it was actually from Yugyeom and not knowing was freaking him out but he knew they had no choice but to go there.

Jaebum and Yugyeom were in danger, Jackson was sure of it, and it didn’t matter if this was a trap by Proditor. He could hear Bambam’s foot tapping in the backseat and despite how annoyed he was getting by it he couldn’t bring himself to tell him to cut it out. The younger was scared for the missing member’s safety and if tapping his foot was helping, then Jackson wasn’t going to stop him. 

They made it to the docks rather quickly and Youngjae and Mark pulled up shortly after. With their guns drawn they made their way inside and Jackson felt his heart drop when he saw Jaebum laying to the floor. The lighting was bad and they were too far away to make out if the man was breathing or not. 

Yugyeom was straddling a man, punching him hard. He seemed to have the situation under control and they gathered around Jaebum and to Jackson’s relief the leader was awake and breathing, if a bit heavy. 

“He didn’t even flinch the first time he killed a person. It was a mother of three, they were right there and he just slit her throat.” the man laughed and Jackson looked over to see blood spraying from his mouth as he spoke, “The best part is that he was just fourteen. You’re working with a psychopa-”

_BANG_

Yugyeom had shot the man. There wasn’t even a glimpse of regret on his face when he turned to face them. His nose was bleeding and his face was red with blooming bruises and Jackson frowned at the sight of him.

“I told him to shut up.” Yugyeom said and Jackson could see the energy drain out of the younger man as he collapsed and rushed forward to catch him but he wasn’t fast enough and the thud of his body hitting the ground echoed around them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lil thing about the names (though I doubt anyone cares):  
> Proditor means traitor in Latin and his real name is Deoksu which has the meaning of ethics, morality and virtue. So in a sense Deoksu is a traitor to his own name since he doesn’t really have morals or virtue in his obsession and need for revenge.  
> Inprotunus means ruthless in Latin and I'm guessing you can understand why Yugyeom had that name.


	13. Chapter 13

Jinyoung wouldn’t leave Jaebum’s side. It didn’t matter how fucking pissed off he was at his boyfriend when said boyfriend had just gotten out of surgery for a gunshot wound. It wasn’t the first time he’d been at Jaebum’s bedside as he recovered from whatever injury he’d sustained - and he knew it wouldn’t be the last one either - but it didn’t make it any easier. Jaebum could have died and Jinyoung’s hand unconsciously tightened around his limp one. It was in moments like these that he considered just knocking his whole team out and whisking them away to the countryside, keeping them locked up and _safe_. 

But he knew he couldn’t do that. They were all messed up and he was just as addicted to this job as the rest of them. There was this thrill in putting your life on the line and they had all worked too hard to just throw in the towel. And besides, he doubted they’d ever be free of this life given what they’ve done.

_What they’ve done._

He’d heard what Proditor had said and he felt ashamed that he believed him. Yugyeom had shot the man without any hesitation or remorse, and the knowledge that the younger had killed someone when he was just fourteen was horrifying. But really, Jinyoung wasn’t much better, he got his first kill when he was eighteen when he killed his father. It had been self defense but now that Jinyoung thought about it, what was there to say that it hadn’t been the same for Yugyeom. He’d been with the Imperium for god’s sake, he would probably have gotten killed if he hadn’t done it. 

“Hey.” Jaebum’s raspy voice pulled him out of his thoughts and he looked up to see him blinking lazily at him.

“You fucking idiot.” he practically growled and Jaebum’s eyes widened slightly, and he looked so damn cute that Jinyoung couldn’t stop himself from leaning over and kissing him, “I’m so glad you’re okay.” he whispered against his lips.

“How’s Yugyeom?” Jaebum asked and Jinyoung could hear the raw concern in his voice.

“He’s okay. He has a concussion but he’s going to be fine.” Jinyoung said softly and stroked the back of Jaebum’s hand with his thumb.

“Is anyone with him?” the concern wasn’t leaving his voice and Jinyoung frowned at the question.

“Yeah, Mark and Jackson are there.”

“Good.” Jaebum said softly and his eyes were already slipping closed, “He shouldn’t be alone.”

* * *

Youngjae had been going back and forth between Jaebum and Yugyeom’s room all day. The latter had woken up a few times but he was still confused from his concussion and had quickly fallen back asleep. He was going to be okay though and Youngjae was incredibly relieved at the fact.

His gut had told him something was going to happen soon and when Bambam had woken them up he had felt his heart drop. He was so sure they’d arrive at the warehouse to find both Jaebum and Yugyeom dead and he almost felt high from the feeling of relief when he’d been found wrong.

He was just making his way back from visiting Jaebum when he stopped short, seeing Jackson sitting outside Yugyeom’s room. His head was in his hand and every type of complications from head wounds ran through Youngjae’s head until he finally managed to pace himself and rush forward to kneel in front of the older man.

“What are you doing out here? Is Yugyeom okay? Did something go wrong?” he fired of the questions faster than the speed of light until Jackson suddenly grabbed his shoulders.

“Everything is fine.” he spoke softly and Youngjae finally let himself breathe. 

“Then what are you doing out here?” 

“He had a nightmare is all. Mark managed to calm him down but I just couldn’t stay in there.” Youngjae could hear the shame in his voice and frowned slightly before sitting down next to him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders.

“Why not?” he asked softly.

“He was so scared. I couldn’t make out the words properly but he was terrified, he sounded like a kid.” Jackson’s voice was laced with emotion and he let out a stuttering breath, “He was with the Imperium from the age of _fucking_ fourteen, maybe even earlier. I can’t even begin to imagine what he went through.”

“Then we’ll ask him.” Youngjae said it like it was simple even though he knew it wasn’t, “If he’s ready to talk, he’ll tell us and maybe we can help. His past may have been horrible but we can make his future better.”

“Yeah.” Jackson sighed and leaned into Youngjae’s side, “We’ll help him.”

* * *

Yugyeom eventually fell back asleep, even if it was with some struggle but Mark managed to convince him that he was okay, that he’d be right there when he woke up. He tried not to think about how relieved Yugyeom had looked when he said it but it was hard not to. The kid had looked shocked when Mark had hugged him and he was sure it had to do with what Proditor had said. The younger probably thought they’d be scared of him now that they knew some of his past. Or that they wouldn’t trust him.

Mark would make sure to tell him the opposite was true, for him at least. He knew what it was like to be forced to do things you didn’t want to do and he knew how easy it was to get used to. There were so many people who couldn’t get out of their situation and became emotionless when they realised they could hand of the guilt to the one giving the orders. The fact that Yugyeom wasn’t like that spoke volumes of his character.

The door behind him slid open and he saw Jackson and Youngjae silently come inside and he smiled reassuringly at them. He’d seen the guilt on Jackson’s face before he left and he hoped his smile conveyed that there was no judgement. It was hard to see Yugyeom like that, the man rarely showed emotions apart from anxiousness - and now they knew why - so to see him so unguarded had been jarring. 

But Jackson came back and that was all that mattered. He wasn’t scared off that easily and considering the night’s event it wasn’t unexpected that his emotions had been running high. 

“He’s okay now.” Mark whispered and Youngjae and Jackson nodded but still sat down in the chairs next to the bed.

They weren’t going anywhere.

* * *

Bambam was practically fuming. He’d been stuck with the team working the Unseen for hours, relaying the little information he had on Proditor in order to give the team an advantage in taking them down. And they fucking kept him there while they followed the lead and came back with nothing. Any evidence of the Unseen working with Proditor was completely gone.

He took a calming breath when he saw the elevator approaching the infirmary’s floor. Maybe it was a good thing that the Unseen had cut their ties to Proditor’s activities. It probably meant they wouldn’t get involved with Yugyeom again, at least not on such a personal level. 

It was frustrating that the Unseen once again got off scot-free but as Bambam entered Yugyeom’s room to see them Mark, Jackson and Youngjae gathered around his bed he felt glad that they wouldn’t have to deal with that threat. Yugyeom was sitting up on the bed eating some food in silence and he looked a bit awkward but it was much better than the state Bambam had last seen him in.

“How’d it go?” Mark asked when he pulled up a chair to sit down.

“There’s no trace of the Unseen having worked with Proditor.” he said and saw the way Yugyeom tensed up at the name, “They cleaned up their tracks. They won’t bother us any longer, it would be too much of a risk of them getting caught.”

“I guess that’s a good thing.” Jackson said but there was still frustration in his voice.

“We’ll catch them some day.” Youngjae said and Bambam simply nodded in agreement.

* * *

They’d put his arm in a sling to keep him from agitating the wound in his shoulder and given him a prescription for painkillers with strict instructions to rest and let himself heal up. And for once Jaebum didn’t feel like going against the doctor’s instructions. He was revelling in the fact that it was all over now, that Proditor was finally dead. 

Jinyoung knocked on the door before opening it and Jaebum smiled fondly at his team gathered there. They immediately got up to put on their jackets when they saw them but Yugyeom didn’t move from where he was sitting on the bed, fully dressed.

“Ready to go home?” Jaebum asked and Yugyeom looked up, a surprised expression on his face.

“Home?” he asked softly.

“Yeah. We’re both discharged, no point in staying here.” Jaebum shrugged and nodded his head towards the door.

“You want me to?” Yugyeom sounded so confused and it made Jaebum’s chest clench when he realised the implications of the simple question.

“What are you talking about?” Mark asked, obviously not understanding.

“I mean, you heard Deoksu.” Yugyeom looked down at his lap, “You know who I am now.”

“Yeah we do. A fucking badass.” Bambam said and Jaebum heard the tell tale sound of a slap to the back of a head and Jinyoung hissing a simple idiot.

“You’re a survivor Yugyeom.” Jackson said and walked up to him, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder, “We won’t judge you for what you did with the Imperium.”

“Besides, the Organization wouldn’t have let you in if you weren’t trustworthy.” Youngjae added and Yugyeom finally looked up at them. The tears in his eyes nearly made Jaebum cry himself. 

“You’re on the team Yugyeom.” he said instead and the tears finally fell but there was a smile on Yugyeom’s face despite it.

“Okay.” Yugyeom said once he got control of his emotions, “Let’s go home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's finally done!   
> A huge thank you to everyone who's read and left comments, it really means a lot!
> 
> Love you lots  
> xoxo

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know what you think! xoxo


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